Class 




Copyright^ 



CSESOGm DEPOStn 



An American Bride 
In Porto Rico 








Copyright, by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

An Avenue of Young Cocoanut Palms 



*£ 



An American Bride 
In Porto Rico 



By 
MARION BLYTHE 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



^ n 



Copyright, 191 1, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 



^CLA^b3084 



^ 



To 

my mother-in-law y who has learned 
to love me^ this little volume is 
affectionately dedicated 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

An Avenue of Young Cocoanut 

Palms .... Frontispiece u 

Vending the "Staff of Life" 
in San Francisco St., San 
Juan, Porto Rico . Facing page 20 

A Country Home in the Interior 

of Porto Rico . . . " " 98 " 

In a Cocoanut Forest . . " "154 L 



" I would be true, for there are those who trust me ; 
I would be pure, for there are those who care ; 
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer ; 
I would be brave, for there is much to dare. 

" I would be friend of all — the foe — the friendless ; 
I would be giving, and forget the gift ; 
I would be humble, for I know my weakness ; 
I would look up — and laugh — and love — and lift.' 



An American Bride 
in Porto Rico 



Overland Limited, June 10, 1905. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

I know we have not been out of your 
mind for a moment since we left and that you 
are now wondering when you will enjoy the 
first letter from us. We think of you very 
often as the distance between us lengthens and 
we want to tell you so, for, after all, that is the 
" chief end " of letters. Harry still makes un- 
favorable and embarrassing comments on my 
appetite but I cannot help it, and, besides, when 
one is patronizing a dining car, the only way 
to get even is to eat, eat. We are now in the 
observation car and our boy is reading while I 
write. He has been such a dear that I feel I 
must thank you all over again. You brought 
him up in the way he should go, though I know 
you did not reckon on the way of matrimony. 

I know perfectly well that you are not quite 
willing I should have him but we are both so 
convinced that this is exactly the way he should 
13 



14 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

go, that I've determined to make you willing. 
I am not the girl to pass by such a treasure as 
Harry. Poor dear mother ! I can see you yet, 
as you watched us from the front door when 
we left the house, and when we turned the 
corner I'm certain you went around to the 
kitchen door so you could see us a little while 
longer, and then I know what you did. But 
wipe your eyes and don't cry any more, and 
don't hate me too hard, for I am not taking 
him away — only going along with him to mend 
his socks and shoo the mosquitoes away. There 
is room in his big dear heart for us both. 
Your place will never be usurped, but kept as 
sacred and as green as ever. Just let me help 
you love him. 

Chicago, June 13, 1905. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

"We arrived in this wind-swept, dust- 
covered city to-day and plan to leave at mid- 
night — just one hour from now, via Niagara. 
The few precious hours we have had here have 
been spent in dragging our weary feet through 
dirt and soot and I have been cleaning the 
streets with my new travelling suit that I 
bought to look pretty in. I feel like investing 
in a box of sapolio and letting the whole of 



IN PORTO RICO 15 

Niagara run over me. They tell us that Porto 
Rico is hot and dirty. I wonder if it is worse 
than Chicago in June. 

New York, June 19, 1905. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

After four days in this high-roofed airy 
city we sail to-day. We haven't even tried to 
feel missionary yet, for we are still so much 
bride and groom that we have had hardly a 
thought of our waiting congregation. 

San Juan, Porto Rico, June W, 1905. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

We have had such a splendid, awful, 
happy, sad trip. Splendid, because we are 
alone in the big world together. Awful, be- 
cause I have had my first startling revelation 
of my husband's unangelic qualities. I thought 
he was the kind that does not tease, but I now 
see my mistake. In Chicago, he put my shoes 
on, laced them up and remarked, after walking 
about some little time, that, except for the fact 
that they were loose, they felt fine. In New 
York, he locked me in a dark clothes-press and 
left me there for half an hour because I would 
not say " please " ; and on shipboard, he leaned 
up against the door of our stateroom and 



i 



16 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

laughed until he had to hold his sides because I 
was seasick. And I a bride of but three weeks ! 
The kind wife of the clergyman who met us 
said : " Poor little thing ! Going way up there 
in the mountains to that forsaken village. How 
can her husband have the heart to take her 
there ? " So much for my red cheeks and 
Harry's bald head. She thinks that I am 
eighteen and he is thirty. 

We have been here a week trying to see San 
Juan and we now feel that we are quite a part 
of what is about us. As the first view of the 
stolid old city met our expectant gaze from the 
deck of the steamer as it entered the harbor, 
we were impressed with a feeling of awe and 
veneration that one always feels for things old 
and strange, but this has now given way to a 
complication of feelings, emotions and senti- 
ments that belongs only to Spanish surround- 
ings and the tropics. 

San Juan is a great big pile of formidable 
looking stone battlements with heaps of foam- 
ing waves breaking and breaking against them ; 
within its walls are old prisons and forts and 
guard-houses and moats, latticed balconies and 
vari-colored tile-roofed dwellings, attempts at 
shops and cobblestone streets, cathedral spires 
and black-gowned priests, and market-places 



IN PORTO RICO 17 

enough to keep a sightseer going for a month, 
and there is a pretty good trolley line to go on. 
There are peddlers of all classes, kinds, sizes 
and sexes ; black people and white people and 
tawny people, big people and middle-sized 
people and little wee people; soldiers and 
sailors, guns and old gaping places where guns 
used to be, and a whole harbor full of ships 
that carry Spanish flags and French flags, 
English flags, German flags and American flags. 
There are, also, pretty gardens and palm-bor- 
dered avenues, palaces and shacks, automobiles 
and ox-carts, lavish wealth and dire poverty, 
fierce scorching sun rays and dazzling, daring 
moonbeams, and this isn't half. I've been 
whisked about at such a pace and enthused at 
so many things that, in my efforts to assimilate 
a little of the great moving picture, my brain 
is whirling like a " merry-go-round." 

As we walked with our guide through Morro 
Castle, we could not but feel a new and almost 
reverent respect for its crumbling, hoary walls 
that told of traditions not our own. We forgot 
to-day and moved for a time in other lands and 
other forgotten times. We were actually inside 
an old medieval fort with towers rising above 
us and dungeons lying beneath us. We looked 
up at the high-perched sentry boxes and down 



18 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

through dark, musty, underground passages. 
We walked through them, too, and I fancied I 
could hear the clanking of chains and the groans 
of prisoners within and could see the stony- 
faced guards as they paced to and fro on their 
monotonous beat, black-whiskered and pom- 
pous, I was sure, as in the days of old Spain. 

I was completely lost to the present when 
our guide led us out to the open air again, 
where we had another view of the ocean's 
greatness, and thought of you and of the miles 
and miles that lay between us. Porto Rico 
seemed but a tiny speck that could be washed 
off the map by any one of the long breakers 
which were rolling ,in, if only the breaker 
should rise a little higher. Our guide showed 
us where, but a few years since, Admiral 
Sampson's ships had anchored and then, with a 
Spaniard's native desire to please, he led us to 
one of the upper battlements and exhibited a 
great rent — the rent made when Sampson's lead 
struck San Juan, shattering Spanish power in 
the little island just as completely as it had 
shattered Spanish stone and mortar in this thick 
wall. 

The sight of this brought us back immediately 
to the present and we remembered that we were, 
even amid all these strange scenes and strange 



IN PORTO RICO 19 

faces and strange tongues, really upon American 
soil, and the stars and stripes floating above the 
fort reaffirmed us. Then we visited Casa Blanca, 
the old castle of Ponce de Leon, the settler and 
first governor of the island. It is the largest 
old building in the city and was, I can easily 
believe, in days long past and gone, the scene 
of many a wild tragedy and bloody encounter. 
We are told that the favorite pastime of its 
daring master was to hunt his escaped prisoners 
and runaway slaves with bloodhounds and to 
have the heads of the natives cracked open 
with one blow of the sword. But that was 
a long time ago and to-day Casa Blanca, 
though it covers the mortal remains of that 
fierce old mariner, is as peaceful and tranquil 
as the waves that break against its walls on a 
summer day. 

How narrow and queer the streets of San 
Juan appear and what toy life throngs their 
two-foot walks and fills the market-places ! 
We have seen more to-day than our eyes could 
possibly take in, but I haven't time to tell you 
about it all. 

Callers came in this evening to meet the 
" new missionaries " and it is now eleven 
o'clock. Our suit cases are yet to be packed ; 
Harry is pacing the floor and we must leave on 



20 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

the six o'clock train in the morning. "We are 
tired and anxious to get into our own little cor- 
ner. We could both be homesick to-night if we 
half tried. We have had our trip, " taken in " San 
Juan, and the romance of being missionaries is 
fast giving way to stern realities. Our journey, 
I said, has been sad and happy. Sad because 
we are leaving our dear ones so far behind, 
happy that we exist and have each other to 
love. They tell us that we will get a good 
many hard knocks down here, but so long as 
the enemy does not batter down the outer walls 
and besiege our own little castle inside, we 
mean to stand our ground. 

Doquiere, July IS, 1905, 
Dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Your long letter this week was the first 
we had had for a month and we fairly de- 
voured every word of it. 

Before leaving New York, we had been 
instructed to " see the work " as we went along, 
so we stopped here for a few days and we've 
been " seeing." The central church here in the 
city is a stone edifice of modern design, quite 
like the churches at home. The services, too, 
and other departments of church activity are 
the same, except that we hear no English 




Copyright, by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Vending the "Staff of Life" in San Francisco St. 
San Juan, Porto Rico 



IN PORTO RICO 21 

spoken. I am already convinced that Span- 
iards and Chinamen are first cousins (at least, if 
language is any criterion), for, so far, I have 
been unable to detect the slightest difference 
in the effect produced by the two tongues upon 
my tympanum. There is, however, a difference 
in the way they talk. The Chinese are always 
so serene and self-possessed. They can walk 
along — a whole string of them — in single file, 
the leader chattering with the tail-piece in a 
most subdued monotone, and I never yet saw 
one of them put his water jar down to make a 
single gesture. But a Porto Rican never could 
express himself with his linguistic appendage 
alone. He requires arms and legs to help him 
out, and to see him in dead earnest is to behold 
St. Yitus resuscitated. His gesticulations are 
truly alarming. His framework suddenly be- 
comes disjointed, his body is a-quiver, and not a 
nerve or muscle of his entire body is still. 

Last night we went to a country meeting 
station, about six miles from town, the occasion 
being our first horseback ride. Such pacers 
and such moonlight ! For the moment I wished 
the whole world were made up of saddle-horses 
and moonlight and Harry to ride beside me. 
But the meeting ! It brought the tears in spite 
of myself. I forgot all about every good time 



22 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

I ever had in my life, forgot the fairy dreams 
of the tropical home I had planned, forgot 
Harry and all, and I just wanted to buy every 
old woman there a new dress, send all those 
hungry looking young men off to college, and 
gather all those sweet little brown-eyed children, 
yes, and the black kinky ones, too, into my 
arms and take care of them the rest of my life. 
It was the first time in my life that missions 
and missionaries ever seemed so real and tan- 
gible to me, and I began to realize that to be 
" called to the field " means something very 
great. I know, mother, that you and father 
feel it more, too, now that your only boy has 
been given to the cause. 

I know you have always been " interested in 
missions," I mean just like all church people at 
home are. You have belonged to the Mission- 
ary Society, paid your dues, read your Home 
Mission Monthly, and when you have been 
asked to " lead in prayer " you've stood up with 
your knees knocking together and in a quaver- 
ing, trembling, faltering voice, you've thanked 
the Lord that you and your friends have been 
brought up in a Christian land, and ended your 
prayer by asking Him to " bless the heathen " 
without much of an idea of who the " heathen " 
are or what is meant by blessing them. 



IN PORTO RICO 23 

More than this, you have dropped money 
into the plate once a year on the Sunday morn- 
ing when the pastor presented the "cause of 
missions " ; but, in your heart of hearts, hasn't a 
missionary always been somebody's else son- 
just one of a lot of queer people who make up 
a kind of a long-nosed cult and go to foreign 
lands to preach and give tracts to the heathen, 
and, like Hamlet's ghost, appear every now and 
then and sometimes oftener to trouble Chris- 
tian people's consciences and who won't let 
them rest well at night until they have pledged 
as much as twenty-five cents a year to missions ? 
And hasn't he always had a gray beard and a 
shiny , threadbare black coat and a wife with a 
pious face who always combed her hair straight 
back and dressed her babies from the contents 
of a barrel ? I was completely dumbfounded 
when I first landed here and saw that mission- 
aries are just like other people — only some of 
them seemed to me to be a great deal better 
than most people. I was amazed, too, to find 
that the majority of them (down here at least) 
are young and good looking and most of the 
men wear linen collars and shave every morn- 
ing. The women, too — " tell it not in Gath " 
— have pretty clothes and pompadour their 
hair and live quite as other folks do. 



24 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

The heathen, also, seem to be perfectly normal 
human beings, not unlike those of us who have 
come here to teach them, and, so far as I can 
see, none of them have horns. When I bade 
farewell to my native Golden West and set my 
face towards this little island, I was fully pre- 
pared to live in a shack and sing hymns from 
morning till night, and, to be honest, I hardly 
had the courage or the grace to brave up to it ; 
but two hearts are stronger than one and 
Harry's heart and courage helped mine. How- 
ever, I'm glad I haven't a long nose (since we've 
been married, Harry has frankly told me that 
he always had regarded it as " smudgy ") and 
that I don't have to live in a shack and that we 
won't 1 have to sneak off where we are not known, 
every time we feel like dressing up for tea. I 
can begin now, and feel as brave as the chil- 
dren of Israel when they tackled the walls of 
Jericho. 

But, " to resume " ; the sense of the intense 
reality of being a missionary came over me and 
almost overwhelmed me at the first meeting I 
attended, and I wish I could speak with the 
tongues of men and angels, so that I could tell 
you what I saw and felt on that evening, meeting 
with those we have come here to help. I wish, 
too, that you could pass it on and tell all the 



IN PORTO RICO 25 

church-members at home that paying their dues 
and reading missionary reports is not their 
whole duty to the cause. Try to fancy, if you 
can, a crowd of country people, many of them, 
both old and young, barefooted, old women 
with the remains of once respectable bandanas 
or turkish towels or any old thing over their 
heads, shy-looking senoritas and bashful youths, 
some white, some black, seated on the crudest 
kind of benches in a dingy, smoky, greasy 
room in the home of a kind-hearted, hospitable 
country squire, with their half mute faces tak- 
ing in your every look, word and gesture, tell- 
ing you all too plainly that they looked to you 
to be their models, — and then you can, perhaps, 
get some idea of what I mean. Try, also, to 
picture yourself and daddy young again and 
fond of life and things at home, down here, face 
to face with the fact that you are missionaries, 
with so much that you have left behind and the 
bridges all burned, too, with a mission board 
back of you who sent you here not to fail, but 
to succeed, and you may feel a little of what we 
feel to-night. 

The towns we have passed through on our 
inland trip so far are old and primitive look- 
ing ; the streets are rough and narrow and you 
bump over the identical stones that Columbus 



26 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

found when he landed here four hundred years 
ago. The Porto Rican seems to think, " 'Twas 
good enough for father and it's good enough 
for me." The houses, many of them having 
tile or brick roofs, are gaudily painted in from 
two to ten colors. I speak, of course, of the 
houses of the more comfortable and better class, 
but these are not all. There is here a great 
background of little huts or shacks, the archi- 
tectural plan of these buildings being strictly 
" mission," and the building materials em- 
ployed consisting of four straws stuck into the 
ground with a leaf spread over the top. It is 
in these, that the great mass of the Porto 
Ricans live. Many of the people seen in the 
streets in the daytime are barefooted, and some 
are but scantily dressed. In by-streets and 
open houses it is common to see children, 
ranging in age from mere infants to five and 
six years, wearing nothing but a birthday 
dress. As a whole the common people look 
neglected and crushed. 

On the other hand there is a bright side to 
life here. The people seem to be contented 
and happy and I can easily believe there 
might be quite as much poverty and suffering 
in some of our own home cities as there is in 
Porto Rico, only, perhaps, it is not so much in 



IN PORTO RICO 27 

evidence. We see here plenty of comfortable, 
refined, and even rich and costly homes, though 
I am not in the least prepared to write of 
them. The houses are substantial, large and 
airy. The doors and the windows are wide 
and high but contain no glass. They are open 
most of the time during the day and the people 
can practically live out-of-doors. The Porto 
Ricans, however, shut everything up as tight 
as a drum at night and are really concerned 
about the Americans who leave their windows 
open and persist in breathing fresh air. 

I must tell you of our trip from San Juan 
and then close. We came in a most antiquated 
little train that looked like the pictures of the 
first train in the old " United States History." 
When we got ready to start, the conductor 
rang a dinner-bell and the engineer blew a 
police whistle. We rode in the first-class car 
which reminded us of those old horse cars that 
still haunt San Francisco. Their speed, too, 
was about the same. Once a cow got on the 
track in front of the engine, which whistled 
and shrieked, and all the people leaned out of 
the car windows to see what dire calamity had 
occurred, but the cow continued her head-on 
course down the track. At last she got off, 
because, I suppose, she was tired of playing, 



28 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

and all the heads came in and all the pas- 
sengers settled themselves again and the train 
quickened speed, as did also the cow, and she 
proved to be the better sprinter of the two and 
got back again on the track. However, after 
another series of shrieks from the engine, and 
another general craning of necks from the car 
windows and another hundred yard dash, she 
decided to let us go on in peace. 

Nothing else of a particularly exciting 
nature took place after that, until we found 
ourselves being unloaded at Camoui, a town 
about half way between here and San Juan. 
Here we took, — now what do you suppose ? An 
automobile — a real " Puffing Billy." 

From this time we had the right of way and 
the only time we were interrupted in our mad 
career was when we met a double ox-team. 
The leaders did a quick-step, right-about-face 
and stretched themselves lengthwise across the 
road. But they, too, after looking us over like 
a crowd of custom inspectors, allowed us to 
pass on our way. The most astonishing num- 
ber of people and the most impossible lot of 
baggage was piled in and tied on to that 
machine ; but we had a good ride, even if we 
were bounced up and down a good deal and 
blown about by every wind. The road lay 



/ 



IN PORTO RICO 29 

through most picturesque country, made up of 
mountains and little valleys with fields of tall 
sugar-cane and groves of palms lying in be- 
tween them, and it wound in and out and 
around, every now and then giving us an 
unexpected glimpse of the ocean that stretched 
out far beyond our vision in great purplish 
blue sheets. 

It is now late and I am tired, but before 
retiring, will you please pass around some of 
those sandwiches with butter in them that I 
know you have made this evening ? 

Masalla, Porto Bico, Aug. 1, 1905. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

We are in Masalla at last and the even- 
ing and the morning are the fifth day. We 
came up from Doquiere in a coach that would 
require abler pens than mine to describe. We 
left Doquiere at one o'clock, p. m. It was 
almost as hot as Chicago. The coach, so slight- 
ingly alluded to above, certainly was the most 
disjointed, rattling mass of rusty bolts, sun- 
burnt leather and wobbly wheels it has ever 
been my privilege to behold. Hitched midway 
between the end of a natural sized pole and the 
dashboard were two of the rattiest, most dis- 
consolate looking little animals ever dignified 



30 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

by the name horse, and they were draped in 
the most abbreviated concoction of a harness 
that ever served the purpose, I feel sure. The 
whip, some feet longer than any I had seen 
before, was evidently intended to span the gap 
between the back part of the horses and the 
coach proper, and it certainly accomplished its 
purpose, for it took but a few cuts from the 
cochero to convince the most skeptical that 
those " rats " could run, for run they surely did. 
True, they fagged several times and balked on 
a steep river bank, but a few more lashes from 
the long whip served to renew their interest in 
what they were doing ; so, in due time, much to 
the relief of the beasts, we arrived in Mediavia, 
sixteen miles up in the mountains. 

The only really narrow escape we had was 
when the driver fell asleep, let the reins drag 
on the ground, and we all but locked wheels 
with an ox-cart. At Mediavia, we were enter- 
tained by a missionary and his family, consist- 
ing of a sweet little wife and two babies. 
After this, we came by means of another car- 
riage and some strings, up, up, eight miles 
further into the mountains, where we dropped 
anchor. Everything here is delightfully inter- 
esting and the scenery is almost as good as 
your own " beautiful Berkeley." We can see a 



IN PORTO RICO 31 

little Mt. Tamalpias from our window in the 
mission teachers' home, where we are camping 
for the present, while all of the worldly goods 
with which Harry endowed me are floating 
around somewhere between here and San Juan. 
The Bible woman is here too, and as soon as we 
arrived they dropped everything and left me 
mistress of the house. I suppose this was be- 
cause I am married, but I don't appreciate the 
distinction a little bit. With my limited re- 
sources, limited knowledge of the subject in 
hand, a cook who cannot speak a word of 
English (or cook either) and I absolutely 
tongue-tied so far as Spanish goes, you can 
imagine how I keep house. I had what I sup- 
posed was stewed chicken and gravy to-day and 
Harry asked us all if we would have more soup. 
Our house is just across the street from the 
old crumbling Catholic church, where a much 
mutilated pavement and a pile of stones in the 
corner of the enclosure tell of the time when, 
during the American siege of Porto Rico, the 
Spanish troops took possession of the premises, 
converted the front part of the church into a 
barracks, the back part into a stable, and the 
towers into a prison, while of all available 
brick and stone they constructed a toy fort. I 
guess they had " mess " in the place of " mass " 



32 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

there for a while. However that may be, this 
story was told us by a very anti-Spanish Porto 
Rican gentleman who speaks good English, and 
the gist of it is that, when the Spanish soldiers 
learned that the American troops were actually 
on their way to Masalla, they dropped their 
guns, and with the entire population of the 
town following in their wake, they fled to the 
surrounding hills and mountains. But they 
might have spared themselves all this trouble 
and exposure, for it was during this very march 
that peace was declared between Spain and the 
United States. 

They tell us that no one can excel a Porto 
Rican in his desire to please. Add to this fact 
our friend's genuine admiration for Americans 
and American government, and you might ex- 
plain away half of the story. I give it only as 
he told it, but to appreciate it, one must see 
him tell it. But what a " snap " our soldiers 
would have had at Masalla had they but been 
allowed to complete their conquest. They 
could have sauntered into town, found the 
" missus " out, hitched their horses and cooked 
their supper beneath the star-spangled banner, 
and their praises would have been sung far 
and wide. 

We live up-stairs, and the ground floor of the 



IN PORTO RICO 33 

house is a store, which arrangement is so com- 
mon here. Extending across the entire front 
of the house is a three-foot balcony, without 
which, according to the Porto Ricans, life 
would not be worth living ; for, above all, 
they do love to see what is going on. From 
this balcony, we look out into the central square 
or plaza, found in all Spanish towns. Here it 
serves also as a market-place and Sunday morn- 
ing is the big market time of the week. The 
humbler country people come in with their 
packs on their heads, while the more prosperous 
ones use packhorses and saddle-bags. They 
come early in the morning and select their 
place of business on the "first come, first 
served " plan, and hold it on the principle of 
the survival of the fittest. They improvise a 
make-believe counter, hoist an apology of an 
awning over it and spread out their wares for 
sale. Every possible bit of space on the plaza 
seems to be occupied by some vender sur- 
rounded by his patrons who swarm about him ; 
the buying and selling and bartering and 
clamoring, united with the roar of voices that 
rises out of the scrabble, all but rivals a ISTew 
York Stock Exchange — only, in this case, it is 
possible for a reasonably intelligent person to 
get some idea of what is being done. 



34 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

Our reception to Masalla was pathetic, but 
as hearty as the struggling little band of Prot- 
estant Christians here could make it. They 
met us about a mile out and escorted us into 
town. Of course we could not talk to them, 
but they just beamed at us and looked us over 
from head to foot, and I am sure that had they 
been able to speak in a known tongue, they 
would have said the polite and proper thing. 
Needless to say that we were " the observed of 
all observers " as we came into town. 

We are quite in love with the sweet-faced 
Bible woman here and she is a great help to us. 
Our Spanish teacher came to see us yesterday 
and we arranged to begin lessons at once. It 
is embarrassing, to put it mildly, to be obliged 
to stare blankly at people and be unable to 
speak. It does, however, develop facial ex- 
pression. My maid, Carmela, lets out a per- 
fect volley of Spanish at me every little while 
and I just stand stupidly in the middle of the 
floor and smile a sickly smile. But when, on 
rare occasions, I succeed in saying a word 
that she can understand, she beams at me 
with such pride that I am encouraged to try 
again. 

It seems so good to get your never-failing 
weekly letter. Don't forget that we are always 



IN PORTO RICO 35 

interested in even the slightest detail of what 
takes place at home. 

Masalla, Aug. IS, 1905. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Every creeping thing that creepeth 
upon the earth seems to be running at large 
here. To begin with, when we arrived from 
Mediavia, Harry found a snake in his suit case, 
which article I must have put in as I prepared 
the luggage for our departure. I did not, how- 
ever, take the trouble to wrap it in tissue-paper. 
And the roaches ! I have never before believed 
that they could develop to such mammoth pro- 
portions nor that they could marshal such hosts 
in one night. The kitchen looks innocent 
enough by daylight, but if I suddenly appear 
with a lamp at night I am greeted by a vision 
of these creatures in regiments and battalions, 
lined up on the stove, the table and the shelves, 
as numerous as Gideon's original army. I get, 
however, but a momentary glance at them, for 
at sight of a light they break ranks and flee to 
the most remote and unheard-of cracks and 
crevices — loving darkness rather than light, be- 
cause their deeds are evil. 

There is another class of insects, too, quite as 
numerous, and even more troublesome than the 



36 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

above mentioned. A Calif ornian already knows 
him well, but an Easterner blushes to mention 
his name. Though they never really cease 
their vigilance by day or by night, they seem 
to favor roaming at large by night — particularly 
in beds while the inmates are trying to sleep. 
Another thorn in the flesh is an insect known 
the world over. He crawls through the screen 
doors, in your meat-safe, and trails with all his 
followers in great caravans about the house; 
they swim in the tins of water set to catch 
them and get into our beds and our sugar bowls, 
and some people say that when one goes out to 
dine with a Porto Rican friend, they are apt to 
be in the soup. 

The mosquitoes are simply too numerous to 
mention and I falter at the mere idea of giving 
you any adequate conception of their subtle 
treachery. They will duck their heads and 
crawl through the most formidable kind of a 
net, and it is utterly useless to attempt to per- 
suade them that they haven't as good a right on 
the premises as you have. There are here large 
insects, also, that are called " horses." We were 
thinking of buying one and the owner sent word 
that he charged forty dollars, but his last price 
was thirty. 

Life grows more 'interesting every day. I 



IN PORTO RICO 37 

can actually understand, at times, what that 
mysterious woman in the kitchen says. The 
other day she spread out a miscellaneous col- 
lection of things on the shelf and began selling 
them to me by way of a lesson in Spanish. I 
argued about the price and bought them all, 
first individually, and then collectively. I am 
developing a new cranial bump. 

The teachers who occupy this house are now 
away on their vacations and the house is under- 
going repairs during their absence. There is a 
perfect mountain of desks and other school 
furnishings and household goods and what not 
all piled up together, which the painters, as 
they work, move about from room to room ; so 
our surroundings are not exactly what you 
would term tidy. Our trunks arrived this week 
and now we dare not unpack them, for " the 
powers that be " are beginning to talk about 
moving us away from here. Isn't this excit- 
ing, moving already ! I thought that if I mar- 
ried a Presbyterian minister I could stay at 
least a few months in a place. Harry was 
called to Doquiere, so, on Friday morning, we 
mounted two fiery steeds and started, but by 
the time we arrived at Mediavia, I had bumped 
so many black-and-blue spots on the saddle that 
I decided to remain over night and visit the 



38 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

brethren there. Harry returned the next after- 
noon and I again joined him, reaching Masalla 
at six o'clock in the evening. The first thing 
we did was to make a grand rush for the States 
mail that was waiting for us, and then I 
managed to get some dinner on to a small table 
which we dug out of the general heap, the din- 
ing-room having been on the painter's pro- 
gramme that day. After this we pulled out a 
bed and went to sleep. 

I take all this as philosophically as an owl, as 
I suppose it is only a part of the proscribed 
martyrdom of a missionary ; only it is beyond 
my mental capacity to understand exactly why 
we should be passed around from pillar to post, 
with no settled place of abode. Still, I try to 
play the part of the optimist who sees the 
doughnut rather than that of the pessimist who 
sees nothing but the hole, and there is really a 
great deal here to make it all interesting. 
There is plenty of furniture here, surely, plenty 
of painters, plenty of time to paint, plenty of 
horses to ride, plenty of places to ride them, 
plenty of rice and beans and no time to get 
homesick. That night, however, we did unpack 
the trunk we had used in San Juan. My pink 
organdy was a crush of something that I did 
not care to look at, at the time. Harry's dress- 



IN PORTO RICO 39 

suit took the prize. He put on the coat with 
his gray homespun trousers, which were gener- 
ously bespattered from his recent trip in the 
mud, and paraded about the room. As tired 
as we were, we laughed. As we piled things 
out, we wondered if any amount of press- 
ing could ever bring them back to life. Here 
I must, as Samanthy says, "resume back- 
wards." 

While we were blissfully spinning along on 
our trip from San Juan to Doquiere in that 
" lightning express " which I wrote you about 
some weeks ago, I was suddenly seized with a 
startling recollection : " Harry," I said, "where 
did you put that wet bath towel that I used to 
wipe up the rain-water off the floor last 
night ? " "I put it in the steamer trunk " — he 
told me with such evident satisfaction with 
himself for not having forgotten it. 

Behold now, six weeks later, the unhappy 
result. Mother, dear mother! Why did you 
not teach your son that wet bath towels get 
mouldy ? With great misgiving, I proceeded 
with the trunk. I sniffed, wept a little (we 
haven't been married long enough to begin 
scolding yet), counted ten, and then told Harry 
he might give my black grenadine dress to the 
cook. Perhaps it is a sin for missionaries to 



40 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

wear black grenadine, but why, then, wasn't 
Harry's dress-suit mouldy, too ? 

On Sunday we opened our box of groceries 
which had also just arrived from San Juan, and 
we had some tea which we cannot get here, as 
coffee serves for all occasions, times and places. 
They burn it black, grind it to a powder and 
serve it with hot milk. You will never know 
what good coffee is until you come to Porto 
Rico. "We had quite an American dinner that 
day, despite the confusion of the house, but 
Harry broke the top off of a jar of pickles, 
spilling the vinegar all over the table, and then 
he dropped a pineapple cheese into my teacup. 
I wondered at him, for he is such a self-pos- 
sessed person. It surely is rare fun to keep 
house in Masalla ; that is, if one is gifted with 
the happy faculty of sifting the nugget of fun 
out of the heap of tragedy that comes with it. 

I ate an orange to-day that measured twelve 
inches in circumference and we paid five cents 
a dozen for them. Smaller ones are three 
cents. 

The Bible woman here tells of a time some 
months since when she was playing the organ 
for Sunday morning service in the little chapel 
we are now using. This is simply a room 
opening directly off the pavement of the main 



IN PORTO EICO 41 

street and the doors and the windows have to 
be left open for ventilation. They were in the 
midst of the service when a man stopped in the 
door and tried to sell her a small squealing pig 
which he carried in his arms. She shook her 
head at him and then he began to barter and 
come down on the price. The people laughed 
but she remained unmoved, and, after unsuc- 
cessfully refusing several times, she shook her 
finger at him, which is the Spaniard's ulti- 
matum, and he left. I am now organist and I 
do hope that no one will attempt to sell me a 
pig, for I shall buy it immediately to get rid of 
him, and with me sitting at the organ trying 
to soothe an infant pig, how do you suppose 
Harry will ever preach a sermon ? 

Harry is commonly known in the community 
as the " pastor." Yesterday he received the fol- 
lowing letter, which serves to reply to your 
question as to whether English is spoken here. 
The envelope bore this simple address : " Paster 
city," and inside, it read, " Paster i herd that 
you wanted to by A horse i have a good one to 
sel you and if you want to see him i will bring 
him to the city for you to See it i guess you 
can understand me i will not fool you the 
horse has four years he has a very good color 
and large if you like to See him you can send 



42 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

me ward by the same Boy yours truly . 

P. S. you look out for these Peapel in Porto 
Rico there will fool you in horses i will not 
fool you you can try him befour you by." 

We expect to move to Doquiere in a few 
weeks. "We are sorry, too, for we were begin- 
ning to love Masalla and we would like to 
work here. 



Masalla, Porto Bico, Sept. 2, 1905. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

This week I simply cannot be cheerful. 
I'm down and out. My spirits are below 
freezing point, despite the hot weather, and 
when I look for the doughnut, all I can see is 
the hole. I am sick with a fever. (I wonder 
if it is the same kind that Peter's wife's 
mother had.) They tell me all newcomers get 
it, but I fail to see where that fact helps me 
any. Our Bible woman, sweet soul that she is, 
dislikes me, too, for something — I do not know 
what. She almost never comes near me, nor 
does she get me anything to eat. I'd as soon 
turn an elephant into the kitchen and expect a 
meal as to ask Harry to cook anything. Next 
time you train a son to get married and be a 
missionary, do teach him at least to boil an 
egg. But even if Harry could cook, we feel 



IN PORTO RICO 43 

that it would be an open insinuation against 
our friend to have him invade the kitchen in 
her very presence. I am wretched and Harry- 
is embarrassed. I lie here and rack my brains 
to know where and when I have offended the 
dear Bible reader, but she placidly lets me 
alone. I'm starving by inches, for I just can- 
not eat Carmela's soup when I am perfectly 
certain that she cooked it in the dish-pan or 
something of equal rank and dignity, and that 
she didn't wash the meat, and that she has 
sampled it over and over to make sure that it is 
perfectly palatable. Poor faithful Carmela! 
She religiously serves me this stuff three times 
a day, which I do thrice refuse, and each time 
she returns looking just a little bit more 
injured. 

I am certain that Harry wishes he had not 
married me and I wish I were home. The 
only doctor here does not know any English 
and the Bible woman is the only one here to 
interpret for us, so I am at her mercy and she 
apparently has no intention of helping me out. 

I am tired now and cannot write more. I 
hope you won't hate me, too, for I love you 
because you gave me Harry, and I hope you 
will write to your son and tell him to take 
good care of me. 



44 AN AMEEICAN BRIDE 

Masalla, Sept. 1^ 1905. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

I am quite myself again this week. 
Harry says he is not sorry he married me and 
the Bible woman has made up. On Friday 
morning, she came to me and sat down beside 
my bed. It was "a beautiful day?" Of 
course it was, anybody could see that, so I 
agreed, only too willing to please her. And 
" how did I feel this morning ? " " Fallen to a 
state of sin and misery, thank you " (I assured 
her). " And the Lord is very good and gra- 
cious to us, is He not, Sister Blythe ? " I re- 
plied that He was, and then I asked her, point- 
blank, how long she expected me to lie there 
without a doctor. I then got the whole situa- 
tion in a nutshell, for she said — "Can't you 
trust the Lord to heal you, Sister Blythe ? " 
She smiled so sweetly and seemed so genuinely 
kind that I knew it was not I, but my doctrines 
that she did not approve. But since my faith 
was running low and I was getting peevish, she 
sent for the doctor. I have since learned that 
she has been ill for over a year, but the fact 
that she is leaving her work for this reason is, 
in her own mind, no reflection upon her views, 
but only on her faith, and she is bravely fight- 
ing it out. 



IN PORTO RICO 45 

Our boy Manuel was looking at Harry's 
graduation picture yesterday and he wanted to 
know if that was taken when the pastor was a 
gentleman. 

It has suddenly begun to rain. I never saw 
it really and truly rain until we came here. It 
begins without the least warning and comes 
down in sheets. We are sometimes compelled 
to shut all the windows and doors and sit in ut- 
ter darkness, for it seems to come from all di- 
rections at the same time. Then, the first 
thing we know, the sun bursts out, the water 
is all gone from the streets, the banana palms 
sparkle in the new light, and everything looks 
as though nature had just completed her weekly 
house cleaning. 

Harry threatens to make me his private sec- 
retary, and I am afraid his letters will never be 
written unless I consent. He studies Spanish 
all the while, and every now and then he says, 
"Now, Mrs. Blythe, for your edification, I 
will recite to you the verb estar" and then, in 
spite of my protests, he begins and goes 
through every form and tense. At noon, I 
say, " Come, dear, lunch is ready," and he looks 
up with a vague far-off expression and says, 
"ftii, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis,fueron." I 
shall be glad when the verbs are all learned. 



46 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

The Senor Professor says that we Amerrrrrri- 
cans do not rrrroll ourrr rrrrrrrs enough. So 
he has decided to begin a course of treatment 
by which he hopes to limber up the unruly 
member of the particular American mentioned 
above. The operation began while the par- 
ticular American's wife was out in the kitchen 
preparing dinner. "You must rrroll your 
rrrrrs," began the Senor Don Professor, and 
Harry, being in a perfectly plastic mood, got 
his very unplastic " dumb servant of the mind " 
into position ready to begin. " Now," contin- 
ued his instructor, " I want you to repeat this 
after me, ten times" and then — poising the 
tip of his tongue like the toe of the winged 
Mercury — he began at the rate of a Rocky 
Mountain locomotive letting off steam, "rrrr 
con rrrr cigarrrros porrrrr el ferrrocarrrril 
rapidos corrrren los carrrrrros." His audac- 
ity seemed to overwhelm Harry at once, for he 
so far forgot himself as to actually attempt to 
say that awful sentence. Personally, I believe 
in recognizing my own limitations. 

Doquiere, Porto Rico, Sept. 29, 1905. 
Dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Since writing my last letter, we have 
been to San Juan, the reverend heads have all 



IN PORTO RICO 47 

conferred, and we are now landed in Doquiere, 
the frying-pan of America. We miss the 
mountains of Masalla, though we are glad to 
be on the seacoast. What we dislike most, 
though, is this second " breaking in " process. 

If you want to enthuse over Porto Rico, just 
leave Masalla, as we did, at four o'clock in the 
morning, and drive to Doquiere. You will 
then know that it is possible to shiver even in 
the tropics. The morning was fragrant and 
clear and the sky was just beginning to unfold 
itself into wonderful sheets of gold and emerald 
and amethyst. As we wound our way down 
the steep mountain grades, our eyes met at 
every turn some new and wonderful sight. 
Range upon range of jagged mountains 
stretched away before us, growing fainter and 
fainter as they reached on into the distance, 
changing from green to purple and blue and 
white ; dainty little valleys lay between the 
mountains dotted all over with the huts of the 
mountain folk who spend their lives on the 
plantations, and big patches of spreading shade 
trees that form a lacy canopy above spread 
out around us, through which the sun filters 
down upon the rich coffee trees — the almost 
sainted trees of the island. The people, from 
the pompous senor of the plantation to the 



48 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

humblest peon who gathers the ripe red berry, 
have a feeling of almost true adoration for the 
coffee tree. 

As we began the three-mile descent into the 
town of Media via, we sat almost speechless be- 
fore a broad sweeping stretch of low lying 
valley, bordered on all sides by high mountains 
and decked all about with wonderful royal 
palms that lift their heads in queenly dignity 
wherever the eye falls. Cocoanut palms, too, 
were scattered here and there, though it is on 
the coast that they grow in their wildest pro- 
fusion. Here, too, we saw gigantic ciebas and 
magas and even the stumps of the now all but 
extinct mahogany trees, lonely reminders of 
lavish wasteful days when their stately trunks 
had been felled to serve as rafters and beams 
in country dwellings. In the distance, like a 
sleeping child only now awakened by its 
mother's call, lay the village of Mediavia, 
touched by the first rosy glow of day, for, as 
the sun arose above the filmy bank of mist 
hanging over the distant canyons, the whole 
landscape was lighted up like an enchanted 
garden, and we heard the bells from the old 
church towers ring out as they have rung for 
three centuries, summoning the faithful to their 
early morning devotions. It was all so new 



IN PORTO RICO 49 

and wholesome to us that for the time we for- 
got the difference in our creeds, and, joining 
the worshippers there, we lifted our hearts and 
thanked our heavenly Father that we could 
live and love. 

But that was all on an early morning trip 
from the mountains some two weeks ago. The 
present finds me the picture of utter dejection, 
sitting in the stuffiest little parody of a hotel 
you could ever imagine, wondering if we are 
ever going to find a house to live in. 

This afternoon we walked two miles down 
the beach to see the cross that marks the spot 
where Columbus first landed. This is one of 
the first things a newcomer in Doquiere always 
does. 

There is only a thin board partition between 
our room and the adjoining one, where two 
men are lodged, and this goes only part way 
up, but that is no uncommon thing here. I've 
heard of things I like better than travelling in 
Porto Rico and living in hotels, especially when 
we are on our honeymoon : I suppose that is 
where we are, for we haven't stopped since we 
were married, nor have we arrived at any par- 
ticular place or thing. I wonder why the 
" Board " telegraphed us " Come, field wait- 
ing." Personally, I've had enough honeymoon, 



50 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

for there is so much more moon than honey in 
this kind of life, that it loses its sweetness. 

The furnishings of our room are beyond my 
descriptive eloquence. Suffice it to say that 
such articles as are found here — most things 
being conspicuous by their absence — are de- 
cidedly dinky and wobbly, and taken in a heap 
would pale beside the bed, a rickety, skeleton- 
like affair, painted black. This offense, funereal 
as it is, I would overlook were it not for the 
fact that the posts are decorated in green leaves 
and red rosebuds. Above our heads is a canopy 
made of old lace curtains and net which nomi- 
nally serves to keep out the mosquitoes. As a 
matter of fact, it only keeps them all inside, 
where they while away the long night hours 
singing their lullabys to two young missionaries 
and flitting dreamily about among the red roses. 
Beneath us, in lieu of a mattress, is a scanty 
quilt of red and orange calico, cut after the 
pattern of the Spanish flag. This covers the 
woven wire springs very well until some one 
gets in, when the springs go down in the middle 
— dragging the Spanish flag with them, while 
you "swing low, sweet chariot," and if you 
don't wake up in the morning bearing the 
marks of woven wire, it's a sign you are made 
of wood. 



IN PORTO RICO 51 

As to food, I have dined in almost every con- 
ceivable thing from a California cook- wagon to 
a Fifth Avenue hotel, but I never was down 
to hard pan before. There is, on the part of our 
Porto Rican host and his understudies, an evi- 
dent desire to please their two American guests 
and, to the best of their ability, they do it. But 
everything floats in lard, garlic abounds in the 
most innocent-looking dishes, and the menu is 
like the laws of the Medes and Persians. I am 
afraid my missionary zeal will not survive many 
weeks of this. 

Doquiere, Oct. 11, 1905. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

We are still in the hotel, but we plan to 
move to-morrow into a little house very near 
the sea, where we hope to stay at least long 
enough to unpack our trunks. A home of any 
sort " where we can be alone and faith renew " 
will be the rarest of treats. We are not sorry 
to have had the experience of sampling a Porto 
Rican hotel, but we are glad to take a little 
house for our stomachs' sake. 

Yesterday, from the hotel balcony above the 
street, I watched the funeral of a baby girl, and 
a very simple, sad procession it was, consisting 
of but one barefoot man in checked gingham 



52 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

trousers, pink shirt and large sombrero. On his 
head he carried the little rough board open 
casket where lay the child, her face upturned 
to the midday sun. The body was clothed in 
a simple white garment and about its head were 
arranged a few gaudy flowers. From the 
balcony where I stood, I could plainly see 
every detail. The man, we were told, was a 
friend of the bereaved family, who, as is the 
custom among the very poor, was in this way 
showing his friendship. "We also learned that 
on reaching the cemetery he would remove the 
body from the box and bury it in a few feet of 
earth. Every three years the bodies of the 
poorest people who cannot pay for a resting- 
place are taken up and their bones are thrown 
into an enclosure in the corner of the cemetery, 
known as the "bone pile." Boxes or caskets 
cannot be buried, as it is troublesome at this 
time to unearth them. 

You ask if it is difficult to live here. I can- 
not say it is for those whose bump of adapta- 
bility has been properly developed. We do not 
suffer any serious hardships, but if we did not 
feel sure that we are about our Master's busi- 
ness, Porto Rico, I am afraid, would soon lose 
its charm. It is hard to be shut off from things 
American and from friends at home, and once 



IN PORTO RICO 53 

in a while we turn our feelings loose and in- 
dulge in a spell of homesickness ; but we always 
survive these attacks and life seems the brighter 
for having weathered them ; just as the skies do 
after one of the bursts of tropical storm that we 
so often see here. On the whole, we have be- 
gun to really love the balmy tropics. With so 
much all about us in this unkept field that needs 
to be done, so many dear little dark eyes that 
look up into ours, so many old and neglected 
people, so many, too, of the young who look to 
us, the representatives to them of the new 
master of their treasure isle to give them a bet- 
ter chance in the world than they have had be- 
fore, there is little time, we find, to sit and fold 
our hands and think of the good things we are 
missing at home. To return has been the least 
of our plans. On the contrary, our entire time 
and thoughts have been occupied in adjusting 
ourselves to our new surroundings, and we trust 
that at the Beautiful Gate there will be some 
one from Porto Rico " waiting and watching " 
for us. 

Boquiere, Oct. 21, 1905. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

The past week has been spent in getting 
moved and settled, which we find requires some 



54 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

time in a country where manana is always bet- 
ter than to-day. At present, our house reminds 
me of the girl who was hurriedly dressing to go 
out, when her mother remonstrated with her 
about the untidy condition of her room. " You 
should have a place for everything and every- 
thing in " 

" I have," broke in the daughter, opening the 
top bureau drawer and dipping up a tangled mass 
of things commonly found there, " and this is it." 

We had roast lamb to-day for the first time 
since we left New York (it's goat, but it's 
roasted, all right). Harry got a whiff of it and 
came out and asked me where I " made the 
raise." You ought to see some of the fine 
meat cuts we get here. I think they kill beef 
just for the sake of getting the hoofs and the 
neck, for I don't seem to be able to find any- 
thing that could possibly have grown any 
place else. Our meat-grinder is almost a wreck 
already, for whatever cut I send for, or how- 
ever hard I try to avoid it, I always wind up 
by having " Hamburg steak." 

Here comes Harry, and he demands the 
privilege of reading my letter. He says I have 
an evil look in my eye and he is sure I am writ- 
ing something about him (I wonder if he comes 
under the head of tough things). Mother dear, 



IN PORTO RICO 55 

your boy is a fine husband and I thank you for 
him every day and try to be worthy of him, 
but when you write next time, just think it 
over and see if you do not owe me a vote of 
thanks as well, for coming down here and 
grinding Hamburg steak for him. If I hadn't 
come, he would still be in that hotel, amusing 
the mosquitoes and staring at red rosebuds. I 
am taking as good care of him as I can. The 
only thing I make him do is to hang up his 
clothes ; and the only things I won't do for him 
are to press his trousers and send his collars 
and cuffs to the laundry. My aunt, who is a 
successful husband-trainer, put these notions 
into my head, just before I was married. 

Doquiere, Oct. 31, 1905. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

Your last letter telling of the day you 
went shopping and of the new things for 
winter, and the open fire in the library grate, 
made us homesick. I was just in a mood for it, 
for things have been piling up almost to the 
breaking point. 

You have been picturing us, I know, in the 
little house by the sea, comfortably settled, but 
not so. I'm too tired to-night to stick to my 
purpose of writing only the sunny side of things, 



56 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

and I'm going to tell you what I had decided 
to keep to myself, for I have so often told you 
that we were too busy to get everything in. 
There seems to have been a depression at home 
in the teaching force and we were unsupplied 
with teachers for this term. Our school has 
had a hard struggle for existence ever since it 
opened two years ago, and it was a case of 
dropping it or holding the fort, which I and a 
kind sister from a neighboring town are doing. 
For this reason we had to break up our home 
and move into the teachers' quarters where I 
could keep one eye on the schoolroom and the 
other on the kitchen. I shall probably con- 
tinue teaching until January, at which time we 
have the promise of help. 

Yesterday I went with Harry to the country 
to play the organ for services, as has become 
my custom on Sunday afternoon. It had been 
raining and the roads were so slushy and slip- 
pery that I almost held my breath from the 
time we started until we returned. Going up 
hill, we had to cling to the horses' manes to 
keep the saddles from slipping back over the 
horses' tails, and going down, we held on to 
their tails to keep from pitching over head first. 
I didn't enjoy the ride very much. I had made 
dumplings for dinner and on the way home I 



IN PORTO RICO 57 

got a pain in my side. Harry assured me that 
the ride had nothing to do with the pain but 
that it was only one of my dumplings. 

To-day I bought four chickens for sixty-five 
cents. This sounds fine, I know, but the re- 
sults of the morning's marketing taken together 
were not encouraging. I sent for fish, string 
beans, oranges and aguacate, and our boy Felix 
returned with nothing but aguacate, Now 
with no cream or butter, what am I to have for 
dinner? We're so sick of chicken that I 
haven't the courage to fry another. We shall, 
as everybod} 7 else does, fall back on rice and 
beans. There is a never-failing supply of these. 

You ask if our congregation sing well. They 
certainly do sing, but this is what tries men's 
souls. Our predecessor wore himself out on 
them and now we've taken up the task. You 
cannot make them see that they ought to get 
through on time. The Porto Rican seems to 
have a natural affinity for a lazy good time, and 
an equally natural aversion to being in a hurry, 
which applies to singing as well as to other 
things. There is plenty of time — all the time 
there is, and just to get a hymn sung. No mat- 
ter if the organ is a measure ahead of them or 
that the leader is wearing his lungs threadbare, 
there's no use to hurry and get all overheated. 



58 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

This afternoon, I went out to inspect the do- 
ings in the kitchen and found the cook scouring 
my silver teaspoons with ashes. I find there 
are still a few things to teach her. 

You also wanted to know in your last letter 
what I mean by a " cocoa-de-agua" Well, a 
" cocoa-de-agua " is composed of a green cocoa- 
nut, a small black boy with no more clothes on 
than the law demands, and a savage-looking knife 
about two feet long. The railway station is his 
favorite haunt, and when you toss him a penny, 
he will flop himself down upon his knees and 
cut a hole in the top of the cocoanut so quickly 
that it will make your head swim. Then you 
drink the cocoanut water from the shell, and 
that's a " cocoa-de-agua" 

Christmas will soon be here. How we should 
like to spend it with you in Berkeley, but since 
we cannot, just have a good time without us, 
and when you have dinner, don't feel too badly 
about the chair that I robbed last June. 

Doquiere, Nov. 28, 1905. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

Since writing you, we have celebrated 
Thanksgiving Day. The same day having been 
the occasion of our wedding a few short months 
before, we dressed up in our wedding clothes 



IN PORTO RICO 59 

and had a turkey dinner, which Harry was 
good enough to commend most highly. We 
also decorated the dining-room and looked as 
festal as we could. We had no cranberries or 
celery, nor several other things that go with the 
day, but we enjoyed our dinner quite as well as 
we ever did, and in the evening we read to- 
gether, admired each other to our full satisfac- 
tion, said nothing about the United States, and 
got through the day pretty well. I learned 
two things that day : First, that you can make 
a cake without eggs, and, secondly, the cake 
won't be very good. 

Last week, just before closing the school for 
the holidays, I examined my fifth and sixth 
grades in hygiene. The following are some of 
the results, and they really are not so bad 
when we remember that they represent Span- 
ish heads thinking in English : 

Q. With what organs do we breathe ? 

Ans. Will breath with the nose. 

Q. Name the five senses. 

Ans. The five senses are see, tast, herd, 

swell, and 

Q. When we eat, where does the food go ? 
1st Ans. The food go to the mouth. 
2d Ans. The food go to the lungs. 



60 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

Q. Why do we need to wear clothing ? 

1st Ans. A child need clothing because its 
vital parts. 

2d Ans. A child need cloth is to cannot 
see his body. 

3d Ans. A child need cloding to preserb 
the worm of the body. 

Last Sunday, after the service in the country, 
Harry had a wedding. After our return, I 
was telling about it and describing the bride's 
attire to our predecessor, who was here with us 
that day. When I came to the hat, he broke 
in " Oh ! you need not describe that hat. I 
know all about it. I've married that pink hat 
many a time." 

It seems that there is an unwritten law that 
a bride must wear a hat — an article little used 
here. So they have a sort of a community 
affair out there that is used by all the brides. 

Our movable feast continues: Word came 
on the mail this week that our new teachers 
will be here in January, so we shall have the 
pleasure and distinction of moving again. We 
landed here with nothing but our trunks and 
we haven't had time to get much of anything 
else. " Blessed be nothing." 

I have two canary birds that live in the sun- 



IN PORTO RICO 61 

shine on my balcony. The lord of the cage is 
orange and black with a bright blue head, and 
his senora is a beautiful soft cuddling green 
creature trimmed in blue. By way of making 
melody, they whistle, and they live entirely on 
bananas. Yesterday the head of the house 
escaped, and, after dashing madly about for 
some little time and making himself generally 
ridiculous, he allowed me to take him in my 
hand and I put him into the cage again. His 
gay coat was much soiled and he sat on the 
perch looking quite disgusted with himself, 
while the good wife of his bosom proceeded to 
brush him up. She flew back and forth to the 
water, each time dipping her dainty bill with 
which she gave her disgruntled spouse a rub 
here and a finishing touch there, until he quite 
regained his good humor and looked as clean 
as ever, and then they whistled. I think the 
method worth remembering and if ever Harry 
gets unruly, I'll apply it. 

I hope you don't think I am giddy. I am 
quite sure the Bible woman up in the moun- 
tains does, for one time she looked right at my 
one solitary diamond that sits so proudly above 
my wedding ring and said, " Missionaries 
haven't any right to wear jewels. I've sold all 
mine and given the money to the Lord's work." 



62 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

I once heard a cheery old minister say that 
the Lord makes little round faces and puts 
them here and we make them long. Well, I 
mean to keep mine round as long as I can. I'm 
quite sure we would not be here now if we 
were not in dead earnest about our work, but 
I'm convinced that a missionary needs about so 
much frivolity. It serves as anti-queerator. 
If he doesn't have it, he gets the dyspepsia, and 
a missionary with the dyspepsia is like a bear 
with a sore paw. We have some down here 
already who serve as a great means of grace to 
the rest of us, but I don't think the Lord needs 
any more of them. 

I am quite consumed with curiosity over the 
teachers who are coming — one of them in par- 
ticular. This is one of the things that the 
birds of the air tell and I would not repeat it 
even to you if you were not so good as to be 
interested in everybody who comes within 
shouting distance of us. Besides, I know that 
with all your sweet piety and proper notions, 
you relish a bit of romance, especially when it 
is all supposed to be a state secret. I have 
loved that dear girl from the moment I first 
heard of her and my heart just aches for her, 
for she comes here leaving behind her some- 
body's son, who, I doubt not, is as dear to her 



IN PORTO RICO 63 

as your sweet boy is to me. Why can't people 
just take a good square look at life together and 
manage to fulfill their callings and elections 
without compelling the little love god to 
squander all his ammunition and then, perforce, 
weep from sheer discouragement. She is sure 
she is called to the mission field ; he is sure he is 
not, so there they are. She, who would be Mrs. 
Somebody, is on her way down here because her 
conscience won't let her stay at home, and he 
is at home for the same reason, facing the trials 
of being an eligible young parson. My birds 
settled their differences more wisely, I think, 
and they now sit side by side whistling their 
little lives away and making the world happier 
because they whistle together. There is no 
bridge between here and New York, and the 
water is deep, but if I were a builder of bridges, 
I would begin on January first to construct one 
just wide enough for one man to walk on and 
the moment he set foot in Doquiere, I'd demol- 
ish the whole structure. 

Doquiere, Dec. £7, 1905. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

A Happy New Year to you all, to begin 
with, for the tropics seem as full of the spirit 
of the season as is the homeland. 



64 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

Our first Christmas away from home is now 
passed. For weeks I planned in my own mind 
to have a tree, but I gave it up at last, for fear 
that it would only serve to remind us of the 
gay one you trimmed for us just a year ago. 
Then I told Harry about it and we got braver, 
because there were two of us. So, while he 
went to the country to attend the closing exer- 
cises of one of our little schools, I proceeded 
with my plans. My faithful maid Dolores, and 
our man Felix, entered into the spirit of the 
occasion with a hearty relish, and by the time 
Harry returned the tree was set up, our shacky, 
whitewashed dining-room was quite converted 
into a green palm bower and dinner was almost 
ready. Together we trimmed the tree and put 
on the finishing touches. We took out those 
mysterious packages which Harry had locked 
in the steamer trunk and put under the bed, and 
we put them beside the tree. Then we had 
dinner. My salad, lacking something more 
appropriate, was garnished with pink rosebuds ; 
I wore my fluffy pink organdy gown and Harry 
was as dignified and grand as could be in his 
Prince Albert. 

For favors, I had fudge in little pink paper 
things tied with green ribbons, and we were 
both host and guest to each other. We felt 



IN POETO RICO 65 

then as we had not felt before, that there was 
no place like our own little corner, so long as 
we were away from home and the only Ameri- 
cans in a Spanish city at Christmas time. 
After dinner, think of it ! Harry had to rush 
off and marry a couple, but he made uncommon 
quick work of it, and soon returned to devote 
himself to me and the Christmas packages. 
That Battenburg centerpiece is a dream and the 
sofa pillow is too pretty for words. Then there 
was father's innocent looking letter containing 
the money. We were delighted with it of 
course and we haven't spent it yet. I haven't 
ink and paper and time to tell you all we had 
and said and did. We thought fondly of those 
at home, but not a thing was sprinkled with 
briny drops. Then we began to get tired and 
I snuggled up beside the best gift you ever 
gave me, Momsie, and he read me those sweet 
chapters in Isaiah where it tells of the Coming 
One who shall feed His flock like a shepherd 
and gather the lambs in His bosom, and we 
went to sleep as tired and happy as two children, 
feeling somehow that it was all right to be away 
from home even at Christmastide. 

The room is now (the day after it all) a con- 
fusion of crumpled tissue-paper and strings and 
wrappings and I am writing against time — for 



66 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

the mail goes at noon to-day. This morning, 
just at daybreak, we were awakened by the 
softest notes of a serenade beneath our balcony. 
I know now why God put guitars into the 
world. 

Doquiere, Feb. 1, 1906. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

The events of the past few weeks have 
been full of interest to us but I have been too 
busy to chronicle them in my scrappy weekly 
letters. We have moved again, school has been 
going for a month, and three perfectly dear 
girls are here as teachers. One of them, a 
very young thing from New Mexico, wants us 
all to distinctly understand that she is not 
from Texas, so now we call her " little Texas." 
They are all to dine with us this evening. I 
mean to serve fish — four fine fellows that Felix 
bought this morning for fourteen cents. Like 
other tropical things they are of the gayest 
hues, — pink, blue and lavender with gold 
stripes on them. After fish, I shall serve the 
family joke. I mean, of course, "Hamburg 
loaf." Every time we have it Harry exclaims 
as though it were the first Hamburg steak he 
ever tasted in his life. He says it is capital 
stuff and whenever we have company he pre- 



IN PORTO RICO 67 

tends that I am just spreading myself by having 
Hamburg steak. 

My little widow (for that is what in my 
thoughts I call her) is all and more than my 
wildest imagination had painted her. She is a 
bundle of gay optimism and downright serious- 
ness and devotion to her work — with the 
sweetest face and kindest blue eyes that are so 
deep, yes, deeper I believe than the water be- 
tween here and New York and bright enough 
to be seen from there, too, and so sad at times. 
I've begun to drive the piles for my bridge al- 
ready and if that magnetic heart of hers does 
not draw all the steel out of that man who 
thinks he has no calling, and give him a calling 
so quick that he will want to come down by 
cablegram, then I'm no builder of bridges. 

And how is the weather during these winter 
months? Just like the little wee bear's por- 
ridge — neither too hot nor too cold, but just 
right. 

Harry has booked another wedding for Sun- 
day in the country. I suppose he will marry 
the pink hat again and expect me to sit at the 
organ and look solemn. 

We bought a tiny ice cream freezer " built 
for two," and to-day we had ice cream for the 
first time. We paid five cents a pound for the 



68 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

ice, but don't let this fact get abroad among 
the brethren at home or next year's contribu- 
tions for home missions will diminish by half- 
and I shall feel responsible. We feel that 
Porto Rico is not so awfully behind the times 
when we can have ice cream and ride in auto- 
mobiles. But, to be true to the facts here, the 
two extremes seem to meet. On the same road 
are found automobiles and ox-carts, and in one 
field you may see a modern gang plow or a 
steam plow while just over the fence may be its 
original ancestor — a crooked stick creation, 
which, if not really antediluvian, at least dates 
back to the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 
It just scratches up the ground a little on the 
surface and the seeds are planted. The farmer 
sits placidly down in his little shack while the 
rains come and the floods descend, but some- 
how an all but too gracious Providence (not ex- 
actly by means of him, but, rather in spite of 
him) looks after his seed. 

We went to a newly opened country station 
last evening to hold services and we took the 
baby organ, — that ghost of missionaries that 
sticketh closer than a brother. Such spell- 
bound delight and curiosity I have never before 
seen displayed. It was their first sight of an 
organ. 



IN PORTO RICO 69 

Our poor teachers are having some expe- 
riences they never counted on. They are be- 
ginning to see that in most respects a mission- 
ary's life is made up of quite the same things 
that we find among other lives, and that there 
are several things to be done beside singing 
hymns. Their latest encounter is the rat prob- 
lem. Their house is overrun with these soft, 
downy creatures who seem bent upon doing 
everything in their power to make life unbear- 
able for the girls. They play football and do 
the high hurdles in the bedrooms at night and 
even have the impudence to come to the din- 
ing-room door and wink at them while they are 
at dinner. Such familiarity, even in the case 
of rats, is bound to breed contempt. While we 
lived there, one got drowned, poor thing, in our 
water jar, and I didn't find it until after I had 
used some of the water for our breakfast of 
poached eggs and coffee. This is the only thing 
I've kept from Harry since we were married. 
Some time when we get better acquainted, I'm 
going to tell him. 

Well, last week " little Texas " set her foot 
down on the rat question — she has the daintiest 
little foot, and the most opinionated way of 
setting it down hard. She wasn't going to 
stand it another day, and intended to put out 



YO AN AMERICAN BEIDE 

some poison, in which project she soon secured 
the cooperation of the other two girls. They 
bought some " rough on," and, after warning 
all the neighbors, as the law requires, they 
spread the tempting morsel all about the house. 
The next day the sound of the grinding was 
low and " little Texas " thought she had done a 
mighty clever thing. But the next ! Live rats 
are bad enough, but they are not a circumstance 
to dead ones. They were silenced but not yet 
defeated. The dining-room seems to have been 
their grand rendezvous, so we invited the girls 
over here to dinner and breakfast and as many 
more meals as seemed necessary. " Little 
Texas " was somewhat humbled, but we still 
mean to duck her in the ocean for thinking of 
" rough on rats." 

We expect to be favored next week with a 
visit from a reverend doctor something from 
the Board. The little widow says she is going 
to edge up to him and put in a bid for a better 
school building. 

Doquiere, March 18, 1906. 
Dearest Mother Gertrude : 

The weeks are all so full of work that 
we do not have time to count them, but there 
is a thrill that comes with knowing that we are 



IN PORTO RICO 71 

helping some one, even " the least of these," 
that repays us tenfold for all our effort and 
gives us strength and purpose for each new day. 
While I was in ISTew York, I saw a framed 
placard containing a morning prayer which 
I have never forgotten. It is this : 

" Now I get me out to work — 
I pray the Lord I may not shirk. 
If I should die before the night 
I pray the Lord my work's all right.'* 

I mean to recommend it to General Assembly 
to be put into the new prayer-book. I sent it 
to an old college chum who is now the mother 
of four babies. She replied that it was a great 
comfort and consolation to her on mornings 
when she had time to say it. 

I scold Harry for writing such scrappy busi- 
nesslike letters to you, and he has promised to 
mend his ways. I tell him that he doesn't put 
enough of himself into his letters and I know 
that is what you want, so that is the reason I 
mix him into mine. He says that one of the 
principal reasons for which a man gets mar- 
ried is to have some one to write his letters for 
him. 

The rainy season is opening again in good 
earnest. It rains more or less all the time, but 



72 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

most in summer. Both people and cattle are 
dependent for their very lives upon the rains, 
so when they fail, there is great suffering. 
Doquiere, however, has a never-failing water 
supply which comes from an underground 
stream springing from a hillside. This is 
known as Columbus fountain, so named because 
it was discovered by Columbus and his men 
while they were exploring the coast, and they 
were, by this spring, led to land here. In 
times of drought we are told that cattle are 
driven as far as twelve or fifteen miles to water 
at this spring. 

Any oranges here ? I should say so. We 
drink them instead of water. If they cannot 
be had at four for a cent Felix returns and says, 
" Muy caro, seflora" and he waits until he can 
find some that he considers cheap. We have 
bought delicious ones up in the mountains at 
the rate of ten for a penny. I wish you could 
eat some of our fine pineapples and bananas, 
and I wish, oh ! how I wish I could even see 
some of the cherries and peaches and straw- 
berries that are just now beginning to show 
themselves in the Golden State. 

We have moved again into the big stone 
house I wrote you about. It faces the ocean 
and is very cool. The walls are two feet thick, 



IN PORTO EICO 73 

and the high glassless windows being almost al- 
ways open give a good circulation of air. Some 
homes here are one hundred and fifty years old. 
This one was built by an Italian, eighty-six 
years ago, and he certainly knew how to build 
for this climate. It is so big and open that I 
am afraid at night. I am now on the balcony 
of our sala, and just below me in the street is a 
motley crowd of packhorses, ox-carts, bare- 
footed peons and very muscular boatmen, for 
the shipping station is just above and all the 
loading of steamers is done by men and row- 
boats. The steamers anchor about a quarter of 
a mile out, and there are no wharfs, on account 
of the great depth of the water near the shore. 
Then, too, I can see the ever-present venders of 
sweetmeats, fruits and most anything, who, 
with their morning's supplies balanced care- 
lessly on their heads, call out their wares in 
high-pitched voices. Great quantities of sugar 
and of coffee are shipped from here and the 
street is never quiet. 

You never mention being ill. I wonder if 
you and father keep well. We think of you 
often and talk of you a great deal, and in the 
evening we frequently go out on the balcony 
or up on our roof garden to watch the sun as it 
sets way, way, way out, straight to the west, 



74 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

leaving a gleaming, brilliant path of red and 
gold across the ocean that reaches almost to 
our door and sparkles and glistens on the wet 
sand below us. Once Harry said, "Say, if 
we'd start out and follow that path it would 
lead us straight to a door in Berkeley that is 
marked 2720." Then we didn't talk much 
more, but sat and watched the path disappear 
and turn into the beautiful lavender and gold 
and emerald of twilight, and then deepen into 
purple and blue and — dark. Dear fairy-land 
of the poppies ! I wonder if we shall ever be 
with you again at 2720 " before the silver cord 
is loosed or the golden bowl is broken," and 
some one of us is missing. 

Doquiere, May #, 1906. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

We have no thought this week but of 
the terrible accounts that fill up the newspa- 
pers from all quarters. I have just finished my 
letter home, and now I am wondering whether 
it will ever reach there. If reports are true, it 
means that my home is gone, and that those 
there are perhaps without even clothes and 
food. You can imagine our state of mind. 

We do enjoy our big home on the ocean. The 
interest on the extra rent invested comes back 



IN PORTO EICO 75 

to us by way of whole nights of sound sleep 
and a brand new feeling every morning, which 
we consider to be the very best use a mis- 
sionary could possibly make of his surplus cash. 
We open everything that has hinges on it and 
let the wind play at will through the house. 
Being up-stairs, this is perfectly safe. 

Some days ago there was a heavy wind 
storm on the eastern coast of the island and we 
are getting it over here on the west side in 
terms of breakers — long, unbroken foamy 
heaps that chase each other in on the sand, 
tumbling over one another in wildest fury, each 
one seemingly attempting to make a bigger dis- 
play than the preceding one. But one by one 
they break and disappear, leaving their places 
to be filled by other waves, equally anxious to 
roll in, and break and disappear. How human 
they are ! 

Doquiere, May W, 1906. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

"We've both been half sick for the past 
week. The weather took a sudden sultry turn 
and our relish for rice and beans and pork and 
tin cans and Hamburg loaf failed us. I want a 
square yard of porter-house steak, some green 
corn, some crisp crackling lettuce that has been 
on the ice, and some strawberries and cream. 



Y6 AN AMEEICAN BRIDE 

I'm out of sorts anyhow this week, so I'm 
just going to demand of you, mother — why you 
didn't let Harry have a dog twenty years ago 
when he wanted one ? He says that a dog is 
the only thing you ever denied him, and now 
that he is master of his own house, he means to 
have one. So he bought one — for me. Think 
of it ! If every dog has his day and every boy 
must have his dog, why postpone the agony 
and shove it off on to an unsuspecting wife ? 
The thing is cute, I must admit — a round, wob- 
bling, fluffy, white creature, only a month old. 
You would laugh to see him being trained. 
He yaps and yells at night in a most heart- 
rending manner. For the first few nights 
Harry got up and cuddled him and gave him 
some milk ; but last night, by way of bringing 
him up properly, he switched him and drove 
him back to his box. 

Still no word from San Francisco. Last 
night I dreamed that I went home to see about 
the earthquake. I went horseback and took 
no clothes other than my riding suit. My 
horse wore no girth and the saddle slipped and 
slipped, until, after a horrible ride through 
squishy, squashy mud holes, over half buried 
boulders, narrow paths, under drippy, over- 
hanging trees, over the very road we travel 



IN PORTO RICO 77 

every Sunday afternoon to our country chapel, 
I slipped right off — into my own bed and the 
moonlight was streaming into, the room, and 
the waves, now all quiet and placid, rolled 
lazily up beneath our window, lapped the sand 
and then died away. Daybreak was just 
painting up the skies in her daintiest hues, and 
I lay there wondering how in such a peaceful, 
slumbering world with such a good God to 
look after things, there could ever be earth- 
quakes and fires that drive people from their 
homes and leave them to suffer. I tried to 
picture San Francisco to myself, but I could 
only wonder again what had happened there. 

The teachers have been entertaining their 
father superior from the Board this week. He 
looks very well fed and I don't believe anything 
ever got drowned in his wife's kitchen water 
jar. He looked about and said, " ISTow, girls, 
what's the matter with this house ? It looks 
cozy enough." The little foot from Texas came 
down and she exclaimed : " Eats, fleas and bed- 
bugs ! Isn't that enough ? " The little widow 
then modestly ventured that it was badly in 
need of repair, there being, among other 
numerous defects, certain boards in the dining- 
room floor that they didn't dare step on for 
fear of going through, and here the third 



78 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

sister broke in — " Yes, and if we did we'd land 
in the midst of the town band that practices 
there every day." 

I just wish you could hear what those girls 
endure from that band. You would increase 
your missionary contribution next Sunday. 
When it comes to the question of missionary 
heroism I always stand aside and give my place 
to the teachers ; Harry and I have each other, 
but they are here like soldiers in a strange land 
and all that is dear to them is at home. They, 
and not the honeymooners, are the ones who 
are adding jewels to their crowns. 

And the town band ? It is composed of a 
bandmaster with a terrible voice, and about 
twenty of the youth of Doquiere still "to 
fortune and to fame unknown," and all the 
instruments that were ever invented. The 
musicians sit about a long table and each fellow 
plays whatever piece of music he happens to 
like, in his own pitch, time, and style. Horns, 
flutes, violins, 'cellos, drums and cymbals, all go 
at once, each one in happy disregard of any- 
body else. They begin just about the time 
classes close up-stairs and continue until about 
ten o'clock in the evening. But, on second 
thought, maybe all bands are like this one. I 
have never belonged to a band. Perhaps all 



IN PORTO RICO 79 

bandmasters have great big voices and perhaps 
it is band etiquette to play whatever piece you 
like in just the way you like. I really ought 
not to say, for I have never lived above the 
town band before, and it certainly will be my 
earnest endeavor never to do it again. All this 
was related in calm dignity by one teacher, 
vouched for by another, and punctuated by 
little Texas, with the result that they have the 
promise of a better building next year. As we 
are to have a manse built during the year, they 
plan to take our big stone house. 

Yesterday we took another horseback trip 
into a new country district where Harry had 
been asked to go for a wedding. Such country ! 
We went through the most picturesque little 
valleys and passes, crossed pretty fern-grown 
streams and tiny farms ranging in size from one 
acre to ten, and learned, too, a little more about 
how the country folks live. Porto Rico, though 
rich in possibilities, is still unused. The greater 
part of the country people are illiterate and 
shiftless. They are content to build a little 
shack, sit down in it, and let the bananas ripen 
and the cocoanuts fall, gathering enough to 
keep body and soul together and not bothering 
with the rest. There is not a month in the 
year that does not bring a harvest of some kind 



80 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



and they know it is coming — so, " sufficient 
unto the day " seems to be their motto. I have 
heard people say that it is only throwing time 
and money away to bring the Gospel to such a 
place, but I do not believe the Gospel will balk 
at anything in human form. If it will, then I 
don't think it is worth much. The fault here 
is not with the people. They have never had 
half a chance. Spain never played a game of 
marbles with Porto Rico in her life without 
cheating. 

It is ever a mystery how the people here live. 
The island is only about one hundred miles 
long by forty wide, and a million people live 
here. Yet there are great tracks of unculti- 
vated land, acres of unused forests, and aban- 
doned coffee plantations. Extreme poverty is in 
evidence wherever we go, yet one never hears 
of a person dying of starvation — an eloquent 
tribute to Spanish hospitality. No one here is 
so poor that he cannot share what he has with 
some one who is poorer. 

Ever since we came here I have persistently 
tried to cultivate some northern vegetables, 
which feat I am now convinced is quite 
beyond me; however, the experience has not 
been without its reward. I have at least 
learned another thing that one cannot do here, 



IN PORTO RICO 81 

and also gained a few side-lights on the charac- 
ter of gardeners. It happened in this wise : I 
had the yard cleared out, ready to be spaded 
and filled with suitable soil, all of which 
seemed perfectly reasonable and fitting to me, 
in view of the fact that I wanted a garden. I 
then made it known that I was desirous of 
securing the services of a gardener, and, after 
interviewing several specimens of this calling 
who presented themselves to me, my choice 
fell upon one Alexandro by name. He was 
barefooted and barelegged to the knees and 
had muscles that looked proper. 

In addition to these recommendations he had 
a balmy smile, a most gracious manner and 
legs exceedingly bowed. I asked him to give 
me his bid on the work I had in hand. After 
looking it over carefully, he assured me that he 
never would think of charging the Protestant 
minister's wife much, and would only ask a 
mere trifle at my hands. After considerable 
effort on my part, he modestly fixed his price 
at sixteen dollars, whereupon I immediately 
saw the great advantage of hiring him by the 
day. In a short time he had the ground pre- 
pared and I sociably remarked that he would 
soon be through, at which remark he looked 
sad, for he saw his sixteen dollars dwindling. 






82 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

"Oh, yes, senora" he said, "sure yes. All 
this work I have done is gratis — done gladly 
and willingly as a true brother in Christ. 
But this ! " referring to the planting, " Ave 
Maria ! what vegetables you will have ! See 
this ! " he went on, indicating the size with 
open eyes and mouth and with hands and bow- 
legs. "You will have peppers so big. This 
patch for your own table? "Why, my good 
senora, this patch if I should plant it will 
supply all the tables in town. Surely you will 
give me eleven dollars, senora. Say," draw- 
ing nearer and getting very confidential, " the 
planting I will do for nothing; the eleven 
dollars is only for clearing the yard ; you see I 
will bring all the plants from my own home 
and give them to you. Ave Maria purissima ! 
I am working for nothing according to your 
own holy doctrine. " 

To-night we had greens, the first and only 
harvest I have reaped, and they made us both 
sick. I think that is doing pretty well. I think 
that a great variety of things could be raised 
here, but so long as a Porto Rican has rice and 
beans, he doesn't care whether school keeps or 
not — so gardening is not extensively pursued. 

Yesterday I told my maid that we would 
have the broom for dinner. I meant cake, but 



IN PORTO RICO 83 

that was not quite so bad as another woman 
who told her cook to have fried sin for dinner 
when she meant fried fish; or still another, 
who asked her man servant to give her a kiss 
when she wanted cheese, or the man in the 
hotel who ordered fried pope when he wanted 
fried potatoes. 

Doquiere, June 10, 1906. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

We took a trip this week to Isabela, 
twelve miles from here, where Harry preached 
the dedication sermon of a new church. Some 
weeks before, we had ordered a new buggy 
which we so needed in our country work, and 
it had just arrived from the States, so we 
christened it that day. The new harness 
looked big enough for elephants and Harry 
spent Wednesday afternoon draping it about 
our tropical steeds, tightening a buckle here 
and lopping off a strap there, until we felt 
comparatively certain that the beasts could 
not slide out of it and leave us horseless and 
helpless in the middle of the road, and we 
planned to start early on Thursday morning. 
As ill luck would have it, one of our horses got 
sick, so we had to hire a team, one half of which 
was larger than the other half, therefore it 
required two hours more of readjusting of 



84 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



harness before we could start on Thursday. 
The larger horse looked quite presentable, but 
the smaller one was like a little boy in his 
father's shirt. Unfortunately, too, new harness 
is black and oily, and these horses were white 
and the day was warm, so by the time we got 
to Isabela, they looked like zebras. We both 
wore white suits and there were yards and 
yards of surplus reins folded up in front of us 
and as we had no lap robes, we were sights. 
Harry was obliged to appear at lunch that day 
feeling much overdressed in his official cloth ; 
especially as the only other guest was a colored 
man of extremely plain appearance. 

The services in the evening went off well 
and I was proud of our boy. The ride home 
after half-past ten in the evening was cool, but 
warm enough to ride without hats or wraps. 
The road was hard and smooth all the way 
and we fairly skimmed through space, the 
air all about us laden with the perfume of 
blossoming trees and the most dreamy perfect 
moonlight I ever saw shimmering in the palms 
and the banana groves along the way. Do 
you wonder that the crusty old bachelor is an 
unheard-of creature down here and that every- 
body, old and young, is in love ? 

Our school closes soon and little Texas is to 



IN PORTO RICO 85 

be with us for the summer. The other two 
girls plan to go away on vacation trips. They've 
had a pretty hard battle since they came and 
they have fought it like good soldiers. Why 
and how that man without a " call " can live in 
New York with those soft, winsome eyes down 
here, is a mystery to us. If he could just take 
a moonlight ride from Isabela as we did, he 
would never survive the temptation. 

The ocean is lovely just now with its jewelled 
path from our door to the golden gate over 
which we have made so many imaginary trips 
in wonderful fairy boats where Harry is cap- 
tain and I am mate. 

Our dog is fast leaving babyhood and he is 
as full of mischief as can be, racing from study 
to kitchen in wildest glee. To-day I found one 
of my white shoes on the kitchen balcony, and 
I suspected the culprit. He seems particularly 
fond of delving into the clothes-hamper. 

But, possibly you are not interested in dogs, so 
I will tell you of a letter I received this week 
from the sweetest woman, I am sure, though I 
never saw her. She has been writing to know 
if she cannot help us in our work, and now she 
wants to have her missionary society at home 
assume the support of my darling blue-eyed 
teacher, and give her ever so many things to 



86 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



help her in her work. I do not dare to hint at 
it to any of the girls, but I really wrote and 
told her all about the " little widow " and the 
man who would not come down here, and the 
hurts, bumps, successes and failures that sweet 
girl is meeting all by herself, and she is just as 
excited about it as can be. I believe this good 
soul is just the one to show that other lonely 
one where he belongs. 

I took the letter right over to the school- 
house and gave it to the one it most concerned 
and left her to answer it. As she read it her 
blue eyes got bluer and brighter and I knew 
that she had just pushed aside all her own suf- 
ferings and disappointments and that she is 
living only for her work. I wanted to tell her 
that I knew all about it and that I was sure it 
would all turn out right, but I had to keep 
still, and that is the hardest thing in the world 
for me to do. But I am just going to help her 
and do all I can to make her life bright, while 
I lay a plank here and drive a spike there, and 
watch my bridge grow. 



Doquiere, July 3, 1906. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

Monday evening is here again and with 
it comes our weekly letter. We have driven 



IN PORTO RICO 87 

sixteen miles and held a country service since 
six o'clock. Sunday is always a hard day, so 
we slept late this morning and did not get 
started to work until nine o'clock, between 
which time and eleven o'clock we were inter- 
rupted by the washerwoman, the tract society 
agent, our Spanish teacher, a banana peddler, 
two elders and the pineapple man ; so we had 
to put off our letters until now. 

The latter individual should most certainly 
be condemned as a public nuisance. He insists 
upon selling me his wares regardless of my 
wishes. This time he came to the top of the 
stairs and I looked up and said " No." Then 
he began his lingo — "Yery fine, very cheap, 
seftora, very fine." I said " No " again without 
looking up, to which he benignly replied : 
" They are very large and very cheap, senora." 
Again I said " JVo ! " but he replied with perfect 
composure, " They are large and fine and cheap. 
They are very large and very fine and very 
cheap." Then I fairly screamed " No ! No ! ! 
No ! ! ! Don't you know what No means ? " 
Apparently my fierceness frightened him this 
time for he said : " Que mujer brava / " 
(What a vicious woman !) and he turned and 
fled down-stairs, saying just as I did — " No ! 
No ! ! No ! ! ! " 






88 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

Doggie is growing into quite a reality. 
Harry began about two weeks ago to teach him 
to lead. After the strap was on his neck, there 
was a veritable show — Harry pulling one way, 
and the dog, howling like a maniac, the other. 
They kept up this performance with distressing 
regularity for two weeks, when, just as I was 
on the point of leaving home, the dog sub- 
mitted like a little major. His favorite amuse- 
ment is untying shoe-strings, which we indul- 
gently allow him to do, though I dare say you 
would pronounce this bad training even for a 
dog. Besides this, I am almost forgetting 
again that you don't like dogs and wouldn't let 
Harry have one when he was little. 

The teachers have been entertaining four 
other teachers from Loma Yista. They all 
sail from here this week for their vacation. 
This morning we all went sea bathing. We 
stayed in the water for two hours and did not 
even feel cold. The tropics is the place for 
this. They were teaching me to float, and 
when, after various attempts, I had succeeded 
and felt so comfortable lying there in the sun 
on top of all that soft water that I was on the 
point of taking a nap, little Texas called out, 
" It floats ! Take her picture for the Ivory 
Soap Company." My feet went up and my 



IN PORTO RICO 89 

head went down and they had to fish me out 
or I should doubtless be there yet, playing with 
the pebbles and the sharks. 

Doquiere, July W, 1906. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

We have just returned from the funeral 
of a little daughter of one of our Presbyterian 
families, where, of course, Harry had charge. 
This was our first experience in this line, so we 
felt a little awkward. We went to the house 
and Harry sat down in the front room where 
were gathered the friends of the family, includ- 
ing ever so many children who chattered and 
played about, and seemed perfectly accustomed 
to the occasion. I went with the women into 
the next room where the child lay on a canvas 
cot, covered with a white veil. She was a very 
pretty little thing with dark curls and olive 
complexion and she was clothed in blue satin 
and white lace and ribbon. None of the family 
except the father was present, and after the 
services, he took her with his own hands, 
placed her in the casket, and, after the other 
members of the family had come in for a mo- 
ment to see her, he closed the casket, which 
was of rough board covered with white cloth, 
and nailed it shut. Then we followed it to the 



90 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

cemetery, the father taking charge of every- 
thing. Children acted as pallbearers and car- 
ried the casket all the way to the place of 
burial. When we arrived there, the grave was 
found to be too small, so the father brought 
two spades and with the assistance of a friend, 
they dug it larger. After we had sung a hymn 
we left them and the two men remained alone 
to bury the body. Through it all the people 
talked and visited. Death is so common here 
that even the children seem to have no awe of 
it. 

On Wednesday afternoon I had a most mem- 
orable party at our house. I invited about 
seventy-five small children of the Sunday- 
school and a few outsiders, and they all came 
in twos and fours and sixes. Wishing to do 
something extra fine, I spent the entire day 
preceding the event in making cookies for them 
— two apiece and ten for Harry, but he couldn't 
wait for the party and ate his before they were 
cold. Then I spent the best part of the fore- 
noon of the next day making lemonade out of 
limes. I squeezed three dozen and thought I 
had a grand treat for them. I even made some 
of it pink, but I was soon to see my mistake. 
If you want to get at the exact truth concern- 
ing what they think of a thing, trust children 



IN PORTO RICO 91 

to give it to you. These children certainly did 
give me their unvarnished opinions of my re- 
freshments. 

There were seventy-five expectant little faces 
turned to me as we began to serve them, and 
then seventy-five little noses turned straight up 
and they said the lemonade was nasty — which 
it certainly was for I had put pounds and 
pounds of sugar into it ; but I didn't like to be 
told so by seventy-five uppish little noses. They 
also added frankly that their mothers did not 
allow them to touch lemonade because it would 
give them colds. I could have cried with 
sheer disappointment, but we ate the dry 
cookies and then, to the tune of " Yankee 
Doodle," we played " Going to Jerusalem," 
which we followed by " London Bridge," and 
thus forgot our sorrows. I afterwards learned 
that what Porto Rican babies like is water with 
brown sugar in it. I'll know better next 
time. 

Harry has been working very hard lately, 
holding a series of special services and doing 
some country visiting. Last Sunday he held 
four communion services and rode forty miles 
in coach and saddle. There was little left to 
tell the tale when he got through the last 
one, 



92 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

We have felt deeply concerned since we got 
your last letter. We did not know father's 
illness was so serious, and we have had a strange 
homesick feeling ever since you wrote of it. 
We shall be anxious until we know he is better. 

Doquiere, Aug. 16, 1906. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

It is still very warm and we feel a little 
bit wilted. It is hard to keep enthusiastic the 
whole year round, and in spite of our efforts, 
things drag through the summer. Even our 
adopted canine has become fickle and Harry 
feels it keenly. There is a black-eyed seftorita 
living on the street back of us who loves dogs 
with a devotion that is truly touching. We 
first began to notice that the dog was feeling 
rather too grown-up and sophisticated and that 
home seemed dull to him. Then he took to 
staying out late evenings and we learned that 
this siren on the back street was feeding him 
candy and rocking him to sleep and kissing 
him, so the deluded young thing, perhaps, ought 
not to be blamed too much. At any rate, if 
that is what he is looking for in life he will 
never get it here and he might as well leave 
now as ever. 
As I look over the ground for something of 



IN PORTO RICO 93 

life here that might interest you, I think of a 
friend of mine at home who used to say that 
her idea of the happy hunting-ground was that 
of a place where you could have a freshly 
laundered white linen dress every day. This is 
just the place for her to come. I have just 
finished counting my week's laundry and find 
that I have put in five white dresses — besides a 
perfect mountain of other things. I do not 
like to let my thoughts dwell upon what will 
happen to them, but you might be interested to 
know. They will be put into cold water in a 
long trough-like tub made of the spas of the 
royal palm tree, with the aid of an old board or 
a stone they will be then sozzled and squeezed 
and pounded, soaped and scraped with a piece 
of a cocoanut shell, then sozzled and squeezed 
and soaped again, spread out on rocks or on dry 
palm branches, sprinkled with soapy water 
again and then left in the sun until the next 
day. Then they will be squeezed and scraped 
and pounded all over again, rinsed and blued 
and hung up on thorny bushes or barbed wire 
or anything under the sun except a clothes-line. 
The next day they will be starched and hung 
up again, and the next day ; and the day after, 
they will be ironed and then brought home in a 
flat splint basket — a perfect heap of clean snow- 



94 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

white fluffy starchiness with a pair of black feet 
sticking out from beneath them. It is reason- 
able to suppose, too, that somewhere there is a 
boy fastened to the feet, though it is a matter 
of faith rather than sight. 

Our programme for some months past has 
been church services every night except Fri- 
day ; Sunday and Wednesday being here in the 
city, and the rest of the evenings in the coun- 
try. We find it a little bit strenuous, but we 
seem to thrive under it. 

Last evening after we returned, I went out to 
the dining-room to make some lemonade and 
found a scorpion on the sideboard. Of course 
I called for help for we certainly had to kill it. 
Harry, in his deliberate, methodical way, went 
out to find a stick to hit it with — just as though 
that scorpion was goiug to sit there and wait to be 
killed. I thought he might have taken a cue a 
little better, but I did not stop to lecture on 
the point just then — but flew to the kitchen and 
got the carving knife. Of course / knew how 
to kill a scorpion, but effervescent little Texas, 
when she saw the knife, rushed into the study 
and got Harry's fountain pen, declaring as she 
flourished it in mid-air that " the pen is mightier 
than the sword." Needless to say that scorpion 
is still at large. 



IN PORTO RICO 95 

Doquiere, Sept. 5, 1906. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

I am still " fixing up " our house which 
I yet have faith to believe will some day be in 
order. When we came to Porto Rico, I 
thought that in two months I could have a 
home all furnished and be settled for all time, 
Behold us now : We have been here something 
over a year, moved seven times and no prospects 
of staying here in this house very long, as the 
owner is to return soon. I feel for " the man 
who tried to hustle the East." 

We were surprised and worried to hear that 
you have taken father to Chicago for treat- 
ment. We cannot rest easy until we hear the 
outcome of the trip. It is hard to be so far 
away from home during such anxious times. 

Last week we had a visit with a teacher from 
a neighboring town who has just returned from 
New York. My ! she did look stylish and she 
was just bubbling over with new ideas as well 
as with the news and gossip from mission head- 
quarters. Our own three soldiers will soon be 
with us again and we shall be glad to see 
everything moving once more. With several 
months' experience now back of them, a new 
building, and the added help of our friend Mrs. 
Williams (who has grown more and more in- 



96 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

terested in us all since she knows more of what we 
are doing), they plan to do a truly worthy work 
this year. I hope the blue eyes of my " little 
widow " have not grown any sadder this sum- 
mer, nor the heart that looks out of them any 
heavier, for she doesn't deserve it. Mrs. "Will- 
iams writes me that she is cultivating the ac- 
quaintance of the man at the other end of the 
bridge, and together we plan to march him 
straight over it as soon as it is completed. 

People all over the island have for several 
days been much frightened and disturbed 
owing to reports of an approaching cyclone. 
They have not yet forgotten the terrible storm 
that swept the island about eight years ago, 
just after the American occupation here. Many 
people lost their lives, buildings were wrecked, 
large rich coffee and tobacco plantations were 
destroyed, and hundreds of people were left 
homeless and penniless. Latest reports from 
different points, however, tell us that the 
present danger is passing, the storm having 
changed its course. We have had enough 
of it to give us a faint idea of what might 
have been. For three days the wind has 
been blowing stronger and stronger and the 
ocean has been rising higher and higher in long 
unbroken banks of angry, green surf, that 



IN PORTO EICO 97 

pound like an army of giants on the rocky 
cliffs above our house, seeming to threaten to 
carry us all away with them to their home in 
the terrible depths out beyond. They have 
washed over the street below and entered the 
patios of the houses, and, as if to lend a helping 
hand to it all, sudden heavy drenching showers 
have been falling for two days, and the streets 
are streaming in red, clay-stained water. A 
large schooner with one of her anchors gone 
has been madly tossing about in the harbor, 
and if her other anchor that has been putting 
up such a brave tight alone all day gives way, 
she will surely be driven on the rocks. She 
looks like a living, breathing, struggling fellow 
being, left alone at the mercy of the storm, 
and we hold our breath every time she 
plunges, her staring black masts reaching ever 
up, silhouetted against the wild, lurid sunset 
sky. 

This is the first Sunday afternoon in a long 
time that Harry has gone to the country with- 
out me, but I felt myself nearing the end of my 
rope, as I do once in a while, so I just let it 
slack up a little. Miss Texas will play the 
organ for me this evening and I am anticipating 
the pleasure of being one of the congregation 
for the first time since Harry began preaching 



98 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

here. He was to have a wedding to-day and 
as he is late in returning, I suppose he had to 
wait for the bride to finish primping. He 
always does have to wait, so we have learned 
to consider it a necessary part of the wedding. 
How those brides do adorn themselves for their 
husbands ! On the hottest days they plaster 
their faces with powder and the perspiration 
runs down in little rivers through it, but they 
never touch it for fear of losing some powder. 
What makes me laugh is the sight of the dusky 
belles with white smudges on their cheeks and 
across their foreheads, while the spaces between 
are left quite natural. 

Now, since I have begun the subject, to be 
fair, I want to say that if the Porto Ricans can 
be said to have any artistic bent at all, it seems to 
express itself in the question of clothes. They 
have a perfect genius for making the most of 
things in any line, but especially in regard to 
their clothes. There is a breezy fluffiness and 
a style about the cheapest bit of pink lawn and 
lace and ribbon, when it has once been through 
the hands of a seamstress, that truly does them 
credit. They almost never use a pattern, or fit 
a garment, yet somehow it always suits and 
looks natty. In no place, I believe, can it be 
more truthfully said that you cannot judge 



1 ' 1 

: i 


^^kwhhPIhBJ^^I^hEm^" * ; - 


jy~\ 




K r - ■■■ ■-,■ 


SHHSgl 


K^ 


$ ; 1 \,| 


J V ^ 

| 



Copyright, by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

A Country Home in the Interior of Porto Rico 



IN PORTO RICO 99 

a person by his clothes than down here. To 
see people on the plaza or at the church in the 
evening you might reasonably conclude that 
they were at least in comfortable circumstances, 
and you would, if you were at all new here, 
take it for granted that their homes were clean 
and orderly. 

But follow them home, and you will find that 
the great majority of them live in huts or little 
shacks with smoky walls, and in many cases not 
the first sign of comfort, as we think of the 
term. The mystery is how they keep so pre- 
sentable, and the ease with which they carry 
the burden of their poverty is nothing short of 
incredible. " Take no thought for the morrow " 
is one Biblical injunction that they certainly 
know how to keep. No matter whether there 
is a cent in the house or not. If you have had 
supper, why work yourself all up into a pet and 
get indigestion by worrying about breakfast ? 
They can lie down and sleep the sleep of the 
just, feeling perfectly confident that they will, 
some way, get some bread and coffee from some 
source in the morning. They just go on and 
get more fun out of life than the multi-million- 
aire ever dared dream of, and as for the simple 
life, they easily out-Wagner Wagner. 

We have an albino horse — exceedingly pink 



100 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

and white, that we bought for fifty dollars from 
a brother missionary who doted on him, his 
wife and children being the only living crea- 
tures who held a higher place in the brother's 
affections. The crowning glory of this albino, 
and the source of all his vanity, was his white, 
wavy, silken mane and his luxuriant tail which 
actually touched the ground. A few months 
ago the poor thing was bitten by a tarantula 
which left an ugly scar on his side. While 
under treatment for this affliction he ran some 
barbed wire into one of his eyes and put it out, 
which did not enhance his beauty any. Then 
he lost his appetite and got thin and poor, 
owing, we later discovered, to a troublesome 
growth in his mouth which prevented his eat- 
ing. We had this operated upon and poor 
Blanco was just beginning to regain his former 
flesh and strength when he ate of the forbidden 
fruit — a kind of weed that if eaten causes a 
horse's mane and tail to drop off. I don't 
mean his entire tail, of course, but only the hair. 
Blanco's pink tail foundation still remained, 
also a pink strip along his neck where his mane 
had been. He is now a most sorry, pitiful 
looking quadruped, so we have decided to part 
with him to the first bidder ; and as the Porto 
Ricans are so much more utilitarian than 



IN PORTO RICO 101 

aesthetic, we hope to get as much as five dollars 
for him. 

I must close now and leave the rest for 
Harry to write. We try to tell you every- 
thing that we think will interest you, but, as 
the Jap said, " on account of the busy of our 
lives," we don't always have time to write long 
letters. We are afraid something has gone 
wrong for we did not get the regular letter 
from you this week and we cannot but asso- 
ciate such a calamity with the trip to Chicago. 

Boquiere, Oct 1, 1906. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Though we were fearing it and had 
tried to prepare ourselves for it, your cable- 
gram came hard. We had just returned from 
the church on Sunday morning and a messen- 
ger was waiting at our door. The mere sight 
of the envelope, somehow, told us the sad news, 
and before night we had decided that Harry 
must go home to see you if nothing else, so 
that is why I received your letter alone this 
week, telling of your sad trip home with poor 
father. It made me feel so badly to read it. 
How I wish Harry had started a week sooner, 
and how I wish that father and I had known 
each other better. 



102 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

I am very anxiously awaiting word from 
Harry. It will be three weeks at least before 
a letter can return to me. I feel so far away 
from you all. I never dreamed what it meant 
to be separated from the one that has become 
such a part of my life that I am only half here 
when he is away. Are you willing to let me 
have him again ? I am afraid it will be harder 
this time than it was at first. I think of you 
so often with father gone — never to return — 
and I cannot bear the thought of your loneli- 
ness. Whatever you and Harry decide upon in 
readjusting matters will be all right for me. 
For the first time in my life I feel selfish for 
keeping your only boy away from you. 

Letters have been so interrupted of late and 
after writing Harry's daily letter, there is not 
much left to write to you ; but I send this line 
to you anyhow, even though I am so unable 
to say what I feel for you. Our little house 
which is just next door to the school looks like 
a new spring nest bereft of its birdies. I am 
living with the teachers but I go over every 
morning and open the house and do my work 
there. Our church people and our Porto Rican 
helpers are showing true steel, and the work of 
the station goes on as ever. We have not 
missed an appointment or a service yet. I 



IN PORTO RICO 103 

must close now as the mail is due. Think of 
me once in a while, and write your usual letter 
if you can. 

Doqidere, Oct. 30, 1906. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

I am counting the days that still remain 
before Harry's return. You are good to want 
him to come back. I am glad we do not have 
to leave now, as I feel that the work we want 
to do here is not yet done. 

It has just stopped raining — one of those 
spasmodic showers that come at this season of 
the year, and the heavy clouds have rolled 
back far away out over the ocean in great, 
wonderful heaps of yellow and crimson and 
pink and violet, while beyond, still farther, 
shines the clear sky of a quiet sunset which 
seems, each time I watch it, more radiant and 
grand than the one before. Soon the glory 
will all die away and the pale, round, full moon 
will appear and retouch my ocean patch where 
to-night I sail alone, for my absent captain is 
now at the other end. But do not think I be- 
grudge him at all. I cannot but feel that he is 
just where he belongs to-night. The vacant 
chair will not seem quite so vacant so long as 
you have him. 



104 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

On the train from San Juan, 
JVov. Hi 1906. 
Dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Of course I came to San Juan to meet 
Harry. The train never could have brought 
him soon enough if I had not been here to help. 
The tragedy of it all was that even after com- 
ing all this way just to meet the steamer, I all 
but missed him. He was not expecting me 
and with a New York suit of clothes, a heavy 
coat of tan and the loss of some considerable 
flesh, I stared at him a while, let him walk 
past me and about ten feet ahead of me before 
I recognized him. Then with a wild spring I 
broke loose from the lady I was with, and 
made such an unexpected necktie tackle from 
behind that I almost frightened Harry out of 
his senses. Then I remembered that there 
were other people on the wharf, and I realized 
that I had made myself unmistakably ridicu- 
lous — though I did not stop to feel badly about 
it then, but just captured my booty and made 
way with him as decently and unnoticeably as 
I could under the circumstances. 

Before we left San Juan I had a tooth filled 
and Harry says that while he waited for me in 
the office he planned a whole sermon on the 
text " Why do the heathen rage and imagine a 






IN PORTO RICO 105 

vain thing ? " Wasn't that invigorating sym- 
pathy ! It took me months to brave up to that 
dentist, but, to be honest, it didn't hurt much, 
though I'm not going to admit it to Harry. 

You would laugh to see us now. If there 
had been many passengers we could not pos- 
sibly have gotten into this train, for we have 
with us a trunk, two suit cases, two huge 
boxes, and divers other small packages. In 
fact, everything except a bird cage. Harry 
sent the teachers this telegram : " Coming to- 
morrow. Fifteen packages, two people, 'to 
say nothing of the dog.' " 

Our journey is, for the most part, along the 
coast, through luxuriant fields of sugar-cane 
and palm groves. Everything is fresh and 
cool and bright and we are happy, for we have 
each other again and we are on our way to 
our own home. 

Now I am just going to say plain " thank 
you" for the pretty silk gown you sent me, 
and it means all those two little words could 
mean even though they were said a thousand 
times. I am afraid that, in the case of Harry, 
absence made the heart grow all too fond. I 
knew he would bring me something nice but I 
was not looking for a silver tea-set with a chaf- 
ing-dish thrown in. I accepted them all and was 



106 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

just delighted to get them, but I gave Harry 
a regular curtain lecture for buying them. I 
am sure that were the fact known, it would 
scandalize the church at large, for most people 
think only Christians and some preachers at 
home should have silver things and that a 
minister who is paid (think of it !) to do mis- 
sionary work hasn't even a right to think silver 
teapots are pretty. I am certain that if they 
could see me about a week hence, — me, the wife 
of a missionary — sitting beside a solid mahog- 
any table, dressed up in my new dress serving 
rarebit out of a shining chafing-dish to the 
very missionary who is being paid to do 
missionary work, they would go right up in 
the air. Well, bless their generous hearts and 
their missionary collections ! When they get 
tired being up in the air I advise them to just 
come back to earth and settle down again and 
get busy and give the missionaries a few more 
pretty dresses and silver things, instead of 
compelling them to live in old houses where 
rats hold nightly carnival and get drowned in 
water jars and do so many other unnice things. 
As for me and my teapot, I've been down 
here alone for six weeks, been to " meetin' " 
almost every night, kept every engagement 
that Harry had planned ahead, and, except 



IN PORTO RICO 107 

that he was not here to preach the sermons, 
not a thing has been left undone. I have 
managed the Sunday-schools, played the organ, 
kept all the mission accounts, and been at the 
post in all kinds of weather. I haven't seen 
cream for a year and a half, nor tasted a 
porter-house steak, nor heard an English 
sermon or a pipe-organ, nor wasted my sub- 
stance on candy and street cars or afternoon 
teas. If chafing-dishes and pretty dresses 
would put in an appearance a little oftener, it 
would lighten our burdens a little more, for, 
with it all, missionaries are intensely human. 
They like to see their wives look pretty and 
serve rarebit and fudge once in a while, just 
like preachers and lawyers, doctors and farmers 
and other men at home do. " He dicJioP 

Doqtdere, Dec. 8, 1906. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

I've been so insanely happy since Harry 
returned that I can hardly keep my wits 
together. The teachers give me periodic 
lectures on spoiling my husband — the kind 
that unmarried people always give, you know. 
I'm longing for the day when I can return 
them all with interest. 

Among other things that I did while Harry 



108 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

was away was to sell our pink and white trotter, 
and I accepted fifteen dollars, for which crime 
I hope some time to obtain forgiveness. Be- 
side having this on my conscience, I have in- 
curred, I am sure, the everlasting contempt of 
the former owner. It came about this way : 
It was time for communion service, and as none 
of our Porto Rican preachers are ordained men, 
Harry had invited this brother to come up and 
conduct the services during his absence. While 
here the visiting clergyman went out to the 
stable and learned from Felix that the apple of 
his eye had been sold. Unlike Caesar, I think 
that it must be the good that horses do that 
lives after them, for never have I heard the 
praises of the departed sung with such elo- 
quence as were the excellences of this dejected 
beast : He wasn't blind — never had been, was 
as round and fat as any horse in town; you 
couldn't count his ribs, you only imagined you 
could. He had the best pace of any horse on 
the island, and the absence of his mane and tail 
were at best but temporary afflictions, and, al- 
together, the horse couldn't be improved upon 
and he would give fifty dollars any day to get 
him back again. I was glad that these lamen- 
tations had taken place in the stable and that I 
did not hear all the details of the performance 



IN PORTO RICO 109 

until after the songster had departed, for I 
should have had a hard time holding my own 
against it. The offer of the fifty dollars has 
not yet put in an appearance. 

The next week, an American doctor came up 
from the city, where Blanco's former master 
lives, to see one of our teachers who was ill, 
and I was standing out on the balcony with 
him towards evening when the doctor remarked, 
" What a forlorn-looking nag that is tethered 
out there on the beach." I explained that I 
had just sold the animal alluded to to a Porto 
Rican and that he had formerly belonged to 
Brother So and So. Then the doctor began to 
laugh. " Well," he said, " is that the horse So 
and So has been weeping and wailing about for 
the past week ? " When everything else fails, 
I think I can qualify as a horse trader — though 
I'll take care not to injure the tender feelings 
of my brother missionaries. 

Another Christmas is near and we are so 
busy that we hardly know where to begin when 
we get up in the morning. We have planned 
quite an elaborate programme and every one is 
taking real lively interest in it. We are to 
have a special celebration in every country sta- 
tion where we have work. 

We received this week some fine specimens of 



110 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

grape fruit from one of our country friends, 
and, just to show what grows here, I tried my 
brush and canvas on them. They measured 
seventeen and a half inches in circumference 
and I honestly tried to get them the exact size 
of my models, but I think I stretched the meas- 
ure about an inch. One of the teachers said 
that so long as I was within an inch of the 
truth that was all anybody would expect of a 
Californian. 

This letter seems to be stringing out pretty 
well, but I want to tell you of another wedding 
experience we had, or rather, a double wedding 
experience. This was at the home of a promi- 
nent country gentleman, one of the grooms be- 
ing his eldest son. The time for the ceremony 
was set for ten o'clock and we drove out and 
arrived at that time. One of the brides failing 
to arrive, we whiled away the time until eleven- 
thirty visiting with the assembled guests. 
When we drove up to the house the old man 
came to the buggy and greeted us very cor- 
dially. The senora met me at the steps leading 
up to the second floor of the house, and, holding 
my hand up just like the pictures of knights 
and ladies of olden times, she led me up to the 
sola where everybody, even the small children, 
shook hands and greeted us most warmly. The 



IN PORTO RICO 111 

house was large and airy, the walls all unpainted 
and black with age. Though the people are 
prosperous and independent in this world's 
goods, they seem to have no idea of beautifying 
their home. There were benches of crude 
boards around the walls, a few chairs, a per- 
fectly bare table, a corner cupboard and some 
very old, cheap pictures in the sola, though this 
would be considered a well furnished home. 
The family that lives here is large and includes 
an unusual number of women and girls and 
each one as she entered the room kissed every 
other woman and girl who was present, first on 
one cheek and then on the other. Through the 
open door leading into the bedchamber, where 
the brides were receiving the finishing touches, 
we could see all that was going on. 

Everybody had a hand in the preparation. 
Their white veils and their orange blossoms 
were repeatedly readjusted, the powder on their 
faces was repeatedly retouched, and the brides 
repeatedly kissed and admired by each new ar- 
rival. Even after they were finally ready, they 
waited for some guest of honor. In the sola 
the family and the guests were impatiently 
moving about in squeaky shoes and high 
collars and new dresses to which they were 
unaccustomed by daily usage, while men, 









112 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

women and children smoked to pass away the 
time. 

At last all was ready and the procession 
came out of the bedroom, the proper girl on 
the proper man's arm. Harry arranged them, 
as he supposed, in the right order, but the 
father of the family protested that there was 
a mistake ; however, Harry assured him that 
all was very correct and the ceremony pro- 
ceeded. A fitting sense of solemnity settled 
upon all present, and Harry began, "Dearly 
beloved, we are gathered together here in the 
sight of God and in the face of this company 
to join together this man and this woman in 
holy matrimony " ; the solemnity intensified, 
and he went on until he came to the words — 
" If any man can show just cause why they 
may not lawfully be joined together, let 

him now speak, or else " Here a chorus of 

voices, headed by that of one woman who had 
been especially officious through it all, called 
out, " There is none whatever." Then all was 
quiet again until Harry came to the joining of 
hands, when a great clamor arose and Harry 
discovered, to his confusion, that he was mar- 
rying the wrong man. Everybody began to 
talk, the old man said, " I told you so," the 
best man, looking greatly relieved, stepped 



IN PORTO RICO 113 

back, giving his place to the anxious-looking 
groom ; everybody laughed, the brides blushed 
becomingly, Harry dropped his book, and 
general consternation threatened the occasion ; 
but Harry recovered his book, assumed his 
most commanding and dignified mien, and the 
company was soon put to rights and the 
ceremony concluded. After this we were 
urged to remain and have some beer, and 
when we declined, the old gentleman insisted 
that it was very good beer and seemed hurt 
that we did not indulge. When we were 
ready to leave, I found the senora awaiting 
me at the head of the stairs. She escorted me 
down as she had brought me up, and we 
were bidden a kind . farewell. We felt that 
we had spent a pleasant forenoon. But think 
of the pity of it! Neither the brides nor 
the grooms knew how to sign their own 
names. In this very place they are urging 
us to open a Christian school and a meet- 
ing-house, but we have neither the time nor 
the money to do it. This kind of thing 
makes up the heart-breaks of the mission- 
aries. 

The weather is perfect these days and I just 
wish you could breathe a little of the country air. 
The hills are all green and the ocean is blue and 



114 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

purple and green and opalescent all at the same 
time. 

I have thus far forgotten to tell you one 
very interesting thing about Harry's trip home. 
"While he was in New York, he went to see 
Mrs. Williams, and they talked over every- 
thing we are doing and she wanted to know 
all about the man who let our pretty blue- 
eyed teacher come down here alone. Then 
Harry found the man himself and told him 
in real polite ministerial language that he 
was making a perfect chump of himself, and 
before they parted they were the best of friends, 
and the other man was almost ready to sail 
with Harry, but he didn't. Instead, he re- 
mained behind, feeling lonely and uncomfort- 
able. I know he must have seen those blue 
eyes again in his dreams that night and heard 
a soft, brave voice calling him to come down 
here and help do some of the many things that 
we who are here cannot find the time or the 
strength to do. 

Doquiere, Deo. 17, 1906. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

We have just a week left before Christ- 
mas and we begin the week of country fiesta 
to-night so that we may go the rounds, and a 



IN PORTO RICO 115 

week of great events it promises to be. The 
senoritas will be out in their gayest plumage, 
with an extra coating of cosmetics, and the 
children will be crimped and scrubbed and 
starched on the exterior at least, and doubtless 
there will be many bare little feet, and big 
ones too, of both men and women, and the 
old women with the bath towels over their 
heads ; everybody who cares to do it will 
smoke, and all will have the time of the 
season. In some of our meeting-places where 
the walls are particularly black and dirty we 
have used the Christmas tree as an excuse to 
get them to whitewash their houses. In most 
country places we meet in the homes of the 
people. 

I spent two days of last week, with the help 
of our Porto Rican Bible woman, dressing some 
little colored girls for the Christmas festivities. 
They were wearing black for their mother — for 
even mere babies are put into deep mourning, 
no matter how remotely connected the deceased 
relative may be. How the little girls do glory 
in it ! Well, these particular black calico 
gowns went from bad to worse, until we could 
stand the sight and smell of them no longer, so 
the teachers " chipped in " and together we 
resolved to make them clean and presentable. 



116 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 






We bought new shoes and stockings and 
enough cloth to begin and make everything 
new. The dresses were of white and black 
print. How the needles did fly for two days ! 
By noon on Thursday, everything was ready 
and three of the dirtiest but most expectantly 
happy little girls you can imagine came over 
to dress for the school exercises, which were to 
begin at half-past one. We began by giving 
them the first tub bath they had had in many 
a long day, I am sure, and they were surprised 
that we put soap all over them, for they said it 
was necessary only for their hands. Then we 
combed and puffed their hair and tied it with 
big black bows, and they felt like princesses, I 
know. 

They were worried about their bare feet, 
however, and wondered why we would not al- 
low them to go and get their shoes, which I 
had asked them to leave out-of-doors. Then, 
to their perfectly entranced vision, I produced 
the shoes and stockings. But alas and alack ! 
The stockings, for which I had sent Felix, were 
sizes and sizes too small. There was no time 
to exchange them, so the only thing to do was 
to draw on my own stocking bag, which I did, 
but to save my life I could find only five clean 
black stockings. So I just disappeared long 



IN PORTO RICO 117 

enough to change one of the black ones I had 
on for a white one, and soon my three little 
girls were dressed to rival Solomon in all his 
glory, and they went off hand in hand, looking 
first at their new shoes and then back at me. 
It was worth all my trouble just to see them 
grin. 

Harry and I have set up our home tree and 
we plan to trim it to-morrow and light the 
candles, for a little while at least, every even- 
ing. We plan to celebrate on Friday evening 
after everything else is over and we can have a 
breathing spell. We have invited twelve 
guests. Among them a Rev. Mr. Small, the 
man who succeeded us in Masalla. He came 
here just after his graduation from Princeton, 
and he is the only bachelor on the force. He 
says there isn't money nor love enough in the 
world to hire him to work up there, and that 
while he is willing to do it for the Lord, noth- 
ing else would ever induce him to live as he 
does. I can feel for him. Ten days in a hotel 
that is a palace compared to the one in Masalla 
was enough for us, but there he has lived for 
months. We all take off our hats to him. He 
is the meek and the pure in heart and those that 
hunger and thirst and are persecuted for 
righteousness' sake and all the rest of the 






118 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



blessed, rolled into one, and if he does not get 
his reward long before he goes to heaven, I am 
greatly mistaken in the way the Lord uses 
people. I have always felt that the teachers 
had a claim to all the laurels there are, but even 
they must step aside for the bachelor preacher 
who lives in a Porto Rican hotel. 

Next to the man without a country the most 
helpless thing I know of is a man without a 
wife, and, though they all know this is true, 
there are but two classes of men who are will- 
ing to admit it — those who are married and 
like their wives and those who are recklessly in 
love. The man in question obviously does not 
belong to the first class, nor has he ever even 
hinted that he is one of the second, but, in my 
opinion, he is a wooden man if he hasn't pro- 
gressed somewhat in that line by this time. 



Doquiere, Jan. 4-, 1907. 
Dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Now that Christmas is over, I can col- 
lect my wits to write you about it. Our coun- 
try fiestas were great successes and we enjoyed 
them all. On Thursday afternoon we had one 
about four miles from town and then proceeded 
about four miles further on for the evening. 
We took our lunch with us and stopped near a 



IN PORTO RICO 119 

stream and ate in the buggy while the horses 
fed by the roadside. "We had cold chicken and 
bread and cake and some other things and we 
bought a hatful and all our pockets full of 
oranges for three cents. After eating lunch, 
feeling very full of Christmas cheer, we rolled 
the bones and scraps up in a paper and gave 
them to the first scrawny yellow dog that came 
out and barked at us. 

On Tuesday afternoon we dined with the 
teachers and had our big church celebration in 
the evening. Our house party was a great 
success and our bachelor friend almost screamed 
when I opened the parlor door and showed him 
the Christmas tree all lighted up. He had just 
come in from a twenty-five mile ride on horse- 
back and he sat there and feasted his eyes on 
the sight like a ten-year-old. We spent the 
time from eight to ten o'clock at dinner, and 
after that a most extraordinary Santa Claus 
came tooting down the balcony. He apolo- 
gized for being tardy, but he had a gift, he 
said, for every Americano in town and he 
made good by distributing them. It took even 
Harry some time to discover that this strange 
Santa was none other than our Felix, who is 
always ready for anything for which we want 
to use him. 



120 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

The new year has opened and new plans 
claim our attention. Harry has been out all 
this week visiting and looking after the 
country work. We have, at present, beside 
the central church here in town, ten outlying 
stations, where we hold regular weekly serv- 
ices. One of our helpers spent three days 
visiting in an isolated district not far from 
here, but shut off by a chain of mountains and 
impassable roads. He visited every home out 
there and found but four persons who could 
write their names. Twenty dollars per month 
will support a country mission school, yet there 
are hundreds of our new American citizens 
growing up in absolute ignorance because we 
have not the money to help them. 

The government is doing an immense amount 
of educational work, but Porto Rico cannot be 
made over in a day. When we remember that 
during the four hundred years of Spanish con- 
trol here, there was not a real public school on 
the island, and then look about us and see 
what is being done now, we find no room for 
criticism, but plenty of opportunity to lend a 
hand. It is hard to conceive the helplessness 
of a people such as our Bible worker visited. 
They have never known anything but poverty 
and ignorance. All they need is a start in the 



IN PORTO RICO 121 

right direction. The Porto Rican children are 
naturally quick and bright and tractable, but 
how can they learn without a teacher, and 
how shall they teach except they be sent ? 

We wish every day that you were down 
here this winter where it is so delightfully cool 
and at the same time so balmy and warm. 
You would not be suffering from a cold then, I 
think. Neither do we have any coal famines, 
but only glorious sunshine that filters down 
through lacy verdure, and dazzling moonlight 
that lights up the palm groves at night and 
carries you right off into fairy-land. Every 
time we drive into the country we want to 
stay there, it is all so fresh and wholesome. I 
never saw such a place for things to grow. They 
cut down small trees and trim them up to use 
as fence posts, and in a little while they begin 
to grow and the first thing we know there is a 
row of new shade trees along either side of the 
road. The rose-bushes have to be cut back 
several times a year to keep them within 
bounds at all. Cocoanut palms grow in rank 
confusion, many of them attaining a height of 
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. 
Not a dry patch of earth is to be seen any- 
where. Fields of sugar-cane and corn and ba- 
nana groves are to be seen all about us, while 



122 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

the hills and roadsides furnish green pasturage 
for horses and cattle. I am afraid the brown 
September hills of California would look lonely 
enough to us now. 

There is scarcely beginning nor end to our 
weeks, they are all so full. We simply close 
one and begin another just like it, yet they are 
quite as full of pleasure and happiness as of 
work. The programme for the next few weeks 
includes the communion services in all our 
stations, a trip to the mountains where Harry 
goes to help organize a church, the meeting of 
presbytery, and the making up of yearly 
reports that go in to headquarters. 

My maid is planning to be married, so I am 
looking forward to the pleasure of training 
another. I wonder how many of my domestic 
precepts she will turn to account in her own 
home. As she is to marry a man who is earn- 
ing the handsome sum of seven dollars and a 
half per month, I hardly think they will 
indulge in many extravagances. 

Next summer will be our third one here, so 
we are to have a three months' vacation. We 
are beginning to plan for it already. Our life 
here is such a constant giving out that we feel 
we need to be replenished once in a while. I 
wonder how New York will look. I shall 



IN PORTO RICO 123 

probably be afraid that the sky-scrapers will 
fall over and crush me, and run from the 
electric cars, and point my finger at things in 
the shop- windows. I may have to practice on 
a few side streets before I venture out in 
public. 

Doquiere, Feb. 1%, 1907. 
My dear Mother Gertrude : 

For two weeks there has been a rustle 
and a stir and an air of expectancy about every- 
thing and everybody. The shops show it in 
their new and tempting displays of pretty 
lawns and dainty dress stuffs of all kinds, 
ranging in color from the gaudiest orange and 
scarlet especially designed to take the eye of 
the country senorita, to the daintiest whites and 
dots and pinks and blues that go to adorn the 
more patrician blood of the city. All the fore- 
noon the country people throng the streets and 
the shops, after having exchanged their little 
stock of whatever they happen to have had for 
a pocket full of small coins. Never was a 
bunch of American beauties sent to my lady 
fair with more pride and love than*a plantation 
jpeon feels in carrying home a gayly dyed piece 
of lawn which has cost a possible eight cents per 
yard with blue ribbon to trim it, too ; never was 



124 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

gift any more graciously or tenderly received. 
There is gingham, too, and pink calico for new 
pantaloons and dresses for the half dozen or 
more olive branches, and cobalt stockings to go 
with them, and a new supply of cosmetics, and 
a string of beads and a frill cap for the " chi- 
quita" 

In the city, every one is busy. It is next to 
impossible for one to procure the services of a 
seamstress, for all are working night and day. 
Confetti^ too, has begun to show itself about the 
streets, just as the premature firecracker does 
at home on the first of July. Then, we are 
greeted by an occasional masked face, and 
" dressed up " street children who can hardly 
wait any longer for the fun to begin — all this 
because Lent is approaching and carnival time 
is near. Who could be such a mope as to sit 
by and be unmoved ? Harry and I have caught 
the spirit of the season and we are planning 
for as big a time as any of them. In the 
Casino, where the elite of the community gather 
for all their social affairs, the flame of the 
week's hilarity begins and spreads like Samson's 
firebrands through the fields of the Philistines, 
and by the time carnival week is here it has 
ignited the remotest corner of the district, and 
there is not a family so poor that they cannot 



IN POKTO EICO 125 

afford to suspend their labors to share in the 
season of merrymaking, which will be formally 
inaugurated on Wednesday by the coronation 
of the carnival queen in the Casino. To this 
event we have been invited, and we mean to 
attend, the saint up in the mountains (I call 
him St. Cecilia) and some others who ought to 
be canonized, to the contrary. 

I cannot see why some people want to be so 
unimprovably good. They seem to be trying 
to get to glory before their time and in so 
doing they stand in the way of a lot of deserv- 
ing people who have a perfect right to the little 
foretaste of heaven we are permitted to have 
here in this world. Now if I say anything 
that isn't real nice and sanctimonious about 
missionaries, do not conclude that I am losing 
my religion. I can't say much, for I am sworn 
to keep the missionary skeleton in the closet, for 
that increases the contributions at home, but 
down here in this tropical atmosphere where 
things get so musty and mouldy, it seems to 
me a good thing to take it out and air it once 
in a while. Besides keeping his rickety old 
bones a little sweeter I think it actually does 
the cause good. In New York we met a man — 
an awfully worldly man he was — who an- 
nounced upon being introduced that he belonged 






126 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

to a society for the extermination of mission- 
aries. It was rather shocking, but even with 
these views, I liked him. Now I see why he 
feels as he does. Still, I pronounce him a 
pessimist, for he sees only the hole in the 
missionary doughnut. We have learned a good 
deal about this much talked of and often slan- 
dered order of tract sowers among whom we 
number ourselves. Most of them are the kind 
of people whose very presence makes one better, 
but a few of them are like the Sheriff of 
Nottingham in " Robin Hood." They "never 
have made one mistake." They explain to us 
the existence of the society to which our worldly 
friend in New York belonged. Sensible mis- 
sionaries do not like them any better than do 
sensible people who are not missionaries ; how- 
ever, there are far too many grand and noble 
people among us to get excited about the few 
whose chief pleasure in life seems to be to make 
trouble for other people. But I guess that in 
spite of these unhallowed views of mine, we 
will all reach heaven and doubtless we will 
understand each other better when the mists 
have rolled away. If we do not, I hope the 
Lord will allot us a bigger playground than 
Porto Rico affords. 
Missionaries are, it seems to me, just like the 



IN PORTO EICO 127 

little girl who had a little curl that hung right 
down on her forehead : When they are good, 
they are very, very good, and when they are 
bad, they are — horrid ! Some of them — only a 
few of them — down here would certainly have 
been translated long ago had they been, in the 
eyes of the Lord, one-half as deserving of such 
a blissful exit as they are in their own. I never 
shall forget the gentle response that two of 
these saintlets gave us when we invited them 
to accompany us to the Casino to see the queen 
crowned. It frightened me half out of my 
wits and threatened a case of spontaneous com- 
bustion right then and there. I shall always 
feel that the cause of the promulgation of the 
Gospel in foreign parts would fare much better 
if they had spontaneously combusted. But I 
am not losing my religion, assuredly I am not, 
I am only taking observations on missionaries ; 
and whenever I see and hear some of them 
indulging in one of their tirades against things 
they have not taken the trouble to inform 
themselves upon, I feel like praying the prayer 
of the Pharisee. 

But I'm off my subject again. Sometimes 
when I get to writing to you it is as hard for 
me to stay on the track as it is for that light- 
ning express that runs between here and San 




128 AN AMERICAN BEIDE 

Juan, and I fly the rails nearly as often. I 
believe I began to tell you about the carnival. 
Like other coming events, it has only cast its 
shadows before it and I will tell you more 
after it is over. I've spent all my time on 
other subjects and now I have only a moment 
to tell about ourselves. Harry is very busy 
with special meetings and country visiting. I 
am busy too. For the past eight months or so, 
since my faithful Dolores left me, I have had 
the dearest little maid you ever saw, but I soon 
decided that she was too good to spend her 
life scouring and scrubbing for me, so, after 
doing what I could for her by way of prepara- 
tory training, I sent her to our hospital in San 
Juan, where she is training to be a nurse. 
Since then, my kitchen has been the scene of 
such a series of calamities that I think I shall 
go mad if relief does not come before many 
more months. 

I now have a new cook who came this week 
— " Mary, queen of pots " I call her, but for 
fear you will give me credit for coining such 
an apt and fitting epithet I want to say that I 
saw it in a magazine story. I adopted it im- 
mediately, as it seemed to meet my need so 
well. Her name is Tomasa, and when I want 
to assert my authority, that is what I call her. 



IN PORTO RICO 129 

She will be the death of us all yet, I am afraid. 
So far, I have been unable to impress her with 
the faintest idea of why I do not wish her to 
scrub and iron on Sunday. She never heard 
of such an absurd idea before. I tell her that 
it is right to do just as little work on Sunday 
as possible, and that we go to church and 
worship on that day and she must be ready on 
time to go with us, which she does, but I am 
sure she goes to church in exactly the same 
spirit in which she washes the dishes — simply 
because I tell her to go. 

Last Friday morning, in view of the ap- 
proaching Sabbath, I said to her, " Tomasa, 
I'm going out to be gone all the forenoon and 
you must scrub the kitchen floor before I come 
back, and also this little passageway into the 
dining-room." " Si, senora," she replied, and I 
mounted my pony and spent the forenoon 
visiting in a little shack district down the beach. 
At noon I returned, very tired and warm, and 
she met me in the doorway of the kitchen. 
"I wanted to iron this morning," she began, 
" but I'll scrub this afternoon." As I had no 
serious objections, I agreed to this, and after 
luncheon, I went out again, returning just in 
time to see about the dinner, and found the 
floor still untouched. " Tomasa," I said, " why 



130 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

didn't you scrub the floor ? " " Well, you see, 
senora" she replied, "I was tired. My back 
aches and my shoulder," soothingly rubbing 
the affected member, "is all stiff with rheuma- 
tism, and my knees/' dropping her dish towel 
on the floor as she bent over and grasping her 
afflicted knees the better to illustrate her point, 
"my knees are so swollen I'm afraid I shall 
fall over." " Tomasa," I broke in here, " I 
don't care to listen to any more of this. We'll 
proceed with dinner," I went on imperiously, 
" and you may scrub the kitchen in the morn- 
ing, and no more excuses from you ! " The 
next morning I spent writing some important 
letters and did not leave my room until almost 
noon. " Tomasa," I roared, as I entered the 
kitchen, "how many times do you think I 
intend to tell you to scrub this floor ? Do you 
own this house or do I?" But she was un- 
moved. She only explained most deliberately 
and volubly, leaving off her work to do so, 
that she had had a dress to iron for herself and 
that at the market that morning she had met 
her cousin whose sister was ill and she had to 
go and see her, and that she meant to scrub 
the floor, but if she did not get it done that 
day, she would surely do it on Sunday and give 
up the pleasure and distinction of going to 



IN POETO RICO 131 

church. " Tomasa," said I, looking my sternest 
and hoping to touch a more vulnerable spot, 
" if this floor is not scrubbed before night, you 
shall not go to the carnival on Monday. Do 
you understand ? " " Si, senora," she replied, 
in the same unruffled tone. At four o'clock 
she came to my room and I repeated my in- 
quiry concerning the kitchen floor. " Yes, my 
good senora" she replied with her most amiable 
smile, "I've washed the floor — that is," she 
added, "I've washed that little part next to 
the dining-room, and God willing, I'll do the 
rest on Monday." 

Do you wonder that I am beginning to al- 
most repent of my generosity towards my little 
nurse maid and that I am beginning to feel the 
need of a vacation ? 

Doquiere, Feb. 26, 1907. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

We have had another jaunt into the 
country since I last wrote you, and I think you 
would like to hear about it. 

We started on horseback in the morning and 
had a long ride before us. About eleven 
o'clock we stopped at an old plantation and 
asked for some water and permission to eat our 
lunch under some large shade trees near their 



132 AN AMERICAN BBIDE 

house. The young man with whom we spoke 
invited us to come in and meet his mother, a 
most kindly and gracious senora, which we did. 
They would not hear to our eating a cold 
lunch, but urged us to honor them with our 
presence at dinner. The house of the good 
senora was " a sus ordenes " (at your orders), as 
were also her sons and anything else she had. 
A peon was sent to drive up a cow which they 
milked and then presented me with a glass of 
milk. We were then escorted about the plan- 
tation where we saw the cane fields and the old 
sugar mill, that, judging from its hoary appear- 
ance, must have occupied that spot ever since 
the landing of Columbus. Then we returned 
to the house where the senora, in a fresh white 
kimono, sat awaiting us. As we approached 
this old tile-roofed abode of many generations, 
we were greeted by the most conglomerate as- 
semblage of living creatures I ever beheld. 
Ducks waddled up from the mud puddle beside 
the house, chickens wandered aimlessly about 
in and out of the house, mother hens with their 
broods scratched and pecked here and there ; a 
swarm of pigeons swooped down upon us 
from the cote at the end of the porch ; goats, 
pigs, a calf and several cats and a few dogs 
mingled in happy disregard, while screech- 



IN PORTO RICO 133 

ing geese stretched their inquisitive necks 
in all directions. Everybody and everything 
seemed to be on perfectly friendly terms. 
In the kitchen, — a decidedly antiquated ad- 
junct to the house proper, — a colored person- 
age with a faded bandana kerchief on her head, 
scanty clothing that parted badly at the waist 
and the remains of some old shoes hanging to 
her stockingless toes and flip-flopping with 
every step, was preparing dinner, while savory 
odors of lard and garlic floated out to greet us. 
She stood before an open table-like arrange- 
ment, upon which among the coals and ashes 
of a year's accumulation, were some stones and 
bricks which served to support her pans and 
kettles that sizzled and sputtered over the coals. 
It was only natural to a person like myself, 
who is accustomed to move and endowed with 
a more or less whirlwind temperament, to 
wonder, as I watched this performance through 
some wide cracks left open by a few missing 
boards in the kitchen walls, how and when, at 
the pace that woman was crawling about, we 
might reasonably expect to be summoned to 
dine ; but I had no more than fairly launched this 
calculation, than I was interrupted by the senora 
herself who, in a most courtly manner, announced 
dinner and led the way into the dining-room. 






134 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



The walls and the rafters were black with 
age and bedecked in cobweb and the floor I am 
certain had never even been christened in in- 
fancy. The table was laid with a once white 
oilcloth — now much the worse for wear, and 
about it we were seated with our hostess, her 
sons, and several other men and women whose 
function about the place had not been explained 
to us. Everybody was extremely solicitous for 
our welfare and seemed a little bit hurt that I 
should hesitate to pitch right in to any or all of 
the various dishes set within my reach. There 
were fried eggs, fried chicken that had laid the 
eggs, fried mutton, fried pork, fried beef and 
fried bananas ; egg salad, pepper salad, and 
aguacate, rice and beans and bread — whole 
loaves of it scattered about the table, but still I 
looked helplessly about, for there was no serv- 
ing spoon. Finally, one of the men who had 
already begun his repast came to the rescue, 
and, with his own fork and knife, helped me 
most generously, and said, " Now eat." He 
then served Harry in the same fashion, giving 
him an extra supply of fried bananas, which he 
detests, but there was not to make reply nor to 
reason why. I wanted to poke Harry with my 
foot, but I knew it would mean our utter un- 
doing if I did. We both knew better than 



IN PORTO RICO 135 

even to glance at each other, so we just assumed 
the same air of absolute composure that we 
wear whenever Harry marries the pink hat, 
and looked straight down our noses and ate for 
dear life. 

Only once did I feel that I would surely lose 
my grip on the situation, and that was when 
another brother who had almost finished eating 
noticed that I had no pork left on my plate. I 
had been watching him to keep my mind off of 
Harry, and I certainly thought his knife would 
disappear with every mouthful, but he always 
managed to keep the handle in sight and in 
this way rescue the blade. He offered me the 
pork, but I thanked him and assured him in 
very bad Spanish that I had been most gener- 
ously served ; but he seemed to think that I 
was bashful, so he arose in his chair just across 
the table from me, licked his knife all clean 
and cut me another chunk of pork, which he, 
leaning across the table, deposited on my plate. 
I almost balked at this, but I had learned to al- 
ways remember that I am a missionary's wife 
and that we are guests in a strange land and 
that we must never offend people ; so I ate on 
in grim silence, and was glad when the dessert 
came. I knew it would be made of pure sugar 
and be insipid and sickish, but anything would 



136 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



be a relief from lard. It soon came, with coffee 
that was strong enough to stand alone, but I 
drank it without a whimper, taking courage 
the while, because I knew I was on the home 
stretch. Then the men left the table and 
stretched themselves out on the benches around 
the room for a smoke and a siesta. The past 
three hours had been rather strenuous for us, 
but, though I hear you " Oh dear ! " and " Oh 
my ! " as you read this, we felt that we had 
learned something worth our while from these, 
nature's own people, who are as sincere as they 
are hospitable. The lard, the garlic, the cob- 
webs, the table etiquette and all were but mere 
details of the background, which served to give 
us a better insight into the open-hearted kind- 
ness of the people we have learned to love and 
are trying to help. We had been allowed to 
share freely the best they had to offer and we 
would have been worse than Hottentots had 
we failed to recognize the honor they were pay- 
ing us. 

The Porto Rican is ever agreeable and cour- 
teous, whatever his station in life or the condi- 
tion of his home. The people are generous al- 
most to a fault, and even the humblest moun- 
tain dweller who has never known anything be- 
yond his rickety hut and his machete — a long 



IN PORTO RICO 137 

knife with which he does all his work ; who 
cannot write his own name or tell you what a 
shoe feels like, will doff his sombrero with as 
much dignity and offer you such hospitality as 
his humble roof affords with as much ease and 
grace as the most finished gentleman of the 
land, only he shows more native grace and less 
of studied mannerism. He never thinks of 
apologizing for what he has to offer, but he and 
his wife and his family are all so graciously " at 
your service " that you forget everything ex- 
cept that you are the guest of honor, and it is 
not always easy to do justice to the situation. 
It would certainly ill become the stranger 
within their gates to fail in any measure to ap- 
preciate such good-will as was shown us on this 
trip, even if we were not brought up to relish 
garlic. 

Doquiere, April 10, 1907. 
My dear Mother Gertrude : 

It took us two weeks to get ready for the 
carnival and two weeks more to get over it. 
The whole country has been as restless as a lot 
of small boys kept after school. I think I said 
I would write you more about it, so I'll begin 
now. The coronation of the queen was a bril- 
liant success, but I cannot begin to tell you all 



138 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

they did. The halls of the club-room were 
elaborately hung in most fantastic effects of 
tissue-paper designs of all colors, while green 
boughs and potted plants and palms banked all 
about made the place quite a successful piece of 
out-of-door staging. The queen and the court 
marched in in royal procession to the music of the 
town band. The music was good, too, and we 
felt repaid for some of the tortures we had suf- 
fered from having lived above them in the school 
quarters. On an elevated platform at the end 
of the ballroom was the coronation chair, where 
the queen was formally crowned. After this, 
she, with her knights and ladies and entire 
court train, gave an old Spanish court dance 
and I didn't feel a bit demoralized after I had 
watched it. Then, the queen taking the lead, 
a general jollification followed, in which young 
men and old men, vivacious, daring senoritas 
and coaxing demure ones and their papas and 
mamas or their chaperones (for none were un- 
attended) all joined. Confetti (or, as they say 
here, papelito) battles then ensued where unex- 
pected and unseen foes lay in ambush and 
pelted their dainty missiles in all directions. 
Then, just as some lady was about to own de- 
feat, some other gallant from the emergency 
corps would appear and offer his atomizer 



IN PORTO RICO 139 

loaded with perfume which the all but van- 
quished lady would aim at the pit of her op- 
ponent's ear or down his collar and then a new 
relay of jpapelito would be proffered and the day 
would be won. Through it all, of course, the 
queen was the centre of attraction and a real 
queen in a real court could not have been more 
queenly. Then the assembly would quiet down 
for a breathing spell. Some would promenade 
while others withdrew to the lobbies and 
balconies where the older and more sedate sat 
visiting and listening to the music. 

Throughout the evening the younger people 
filled up the time with dancing, every now and 
then giving place to more jpapelito battles. No 
one was left unentertained nor did any one 
seem to be bored. As a rule, wives danced 
with their own husbands only, though in cases 
of strong friendship between families or in the 
case of relatives, this rule was not strictly 
observed. Fathers who had escorted their 
daughters there danced with them and treated 
them with all the attention and deference of a 
young courtier. We retired at eleven-thirty, 
the evening having opened at nine, and we 
haven't felt a pang of conscience yet. We 
have no account in our Bible where it says that 
our Saviour folded the robes of righteousness 




14:0 



AN AMERICAN BEIDE 



about Himself and felt too holy to associate 
with saints and sinners alike, but we have an 
idea that He went about doing good wherever 
he saw the opportunity, and I don't believe St. 
Cecilia or the others who ought to be canonized 
are ever going to improve upon His methods. 
One woman said to me that evening, " We do 
not see you here very often, Seriora Blythe." 
"No," I replied, "we come very seldom be- 
cause you have so many of your social func- 
tions on Sunday evening, and we believe that 
is not the right thing to do." "Oh," she said, 
M do you think it is wrong ? " I told her that 
we believed that the Bible teaches us to keep 
the Sabbath holy and to spend it in worship 
and in thinking about higher and holier things. 
The idea was perfectly new to her, and I was 
glad I had had the opportunity of speaking to 
her. I would not have had it if I were too 
good to go where she was. 

But to resume: On Friday evening the 
whole town was on the plaza — the entire mis- 
sion force included. The air was filled with 
gay colored paper serpentinas, yards and yards 
long, thrown by the practiced youth, carrying 
love's tender missives and twining them about 
the objects of their desires as they passed. Or 
some of them may have been intended only as 



IN PORTO RICO 141 

a gallant courtesy to some elderly lady or to 
the stranger within their gates, as was the case 
with us. Everybody, young and old, rich and 
poor, high and low, had a good time ; only the 
darker brothers, in conformity to an unwritten 
but well understood law, were obliged to walk 
only on the outside of the plaza, while the 
white and more favored people held sway 
down the centre walks. Those who preferred 
to do so sat in rocking-chairs which could be 
hired for ten cents each. Although all classes 
and kinds of people participated in the events 
of the evening there was little or no need of 
police, for perfect order seemed to reign. 
Should such a thing occur in the United 
States I am sure the press would unite with 
the clergy in proclaiming that the world was 
coming to an end or that the millennium was 
about to dawn. 

Our church work, of course, was not sus- 
pended during this time and we were as busy 
as ever ; however, we did not censure those 
who did not attend services. The final wind-up 
of the carnival was on Tuesday, the day before 
Ash Wednesday, on which day everybody found 
it convenient to go on parade, every carriage 
and horse in town apparently trying to rival 
every other in display of color. The flat roofs 






142 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

of the buildings around the plaza were lined 
with spectators who flung down their serpen- 
tinas and confetti and flowers as the procession, 
followed by the rabble in comic mask, passed in 
the streets below. 

Everything is quiet now and the next stir- 
ring event will be during Holy Week. It is all 
like a box of candy. After you have eaten all 
you want, it isn't so tempting. Every one 
seems to have had enough carnival to satisfy 
them for another year. 

Doggie is as prodigal as ever, and think of 
it ! He rode in the carnival parade beside his 
doting senorita, with a Spanish flag stuck in his 
collar. I'm afraid that when this fact becomes 
known throughout the mission, the presbytery 
will take it up and some self-appointed com- 
mittee will not allow us even to entertain him 
beneath our roof again. He has gone the way 
of all dog flesh. Bring up a dog in the way he 
should go and away he goes. 

Doquiere, May 10, 1907. 
Dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Summer is again here and with it the 
heavy rains and the steaming heat of the 
tropics. We have loved too well the lovely 
days that ought never to be called winter and 



IN PORTO RICO 143 

we would hold them with us, but the good 
God who knows what is best for His gardens 
and for those of us that He has permitted to 
live in them, is taking the delightful season 
from us, so we must let it go. We are not as 
well as we would like to be to face another 
summer, but we find ourselves too busy to 
stop. So much depends upon us that we some- 
times wonder how or when we shall ever be 
able to break away from it. The thought, too, 
of your lonely lot is ever with us and we some- 
times wonder if there is not some one at home 
with whom Harry could trade places. We 
sometimes get discouraged, but when we 
remember the brave girl at the school who is 
fighting her battles alone, we take new 
courage. I feel so tired, lately, but when my 
head gets too heavy for my own shoulders 
there is another, strong and kind, to lean 
upon ; and when people misunderstand me and 
hurt my feelings, there is another calm, steady 
soul to believe in me and a loving hand to 
smooth over the hard places and to polish up 
the ugly bruises, making things shine again. I 
want to be strong and sweet and brave like 
my little widow who works alone, but now I 
get discouraged so often. Of course I tell 
Harry all about it and he just holds me close 



144 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

and tells me I am helping him and this makes 
me strong enough to begin another day with 
him. At times like these, I feel that he is all 
I have in the world that means anything to 
me, and I want to get right up and write to 
you and tell you that I haven't forgotten that 
you gave him to me. 

I have such a good letter from Mrs. Williams 
this week. I wish she could multiply herself 
by fifty thousand and then join every church 
in the United States, for she is the kind of a 
sister that missionaries need at the home end 
of the line. We never get the blues or feel 
down and out but there comes a loving, grate- 
ful missive from her and her people who are 
doing so much to help us, that bolsters us right 
up again. 

When one gets to feeling sorry for himself, 
there is no other remedy so effective as looking 
about for some one who is in a worse plight. 
We began a course of this kind of treatment 
not long since and we did not look far before 
we found the object we sought. Our bachelor 
friend has been laid up for three months with 
boils — ten of them — a fitting climax, we think, 
to ten months of fried things (just a boil a 
month). Whenever I see him, I want to sing 
"Hold the Fort" and "Deliverance will 



IN PORTO RICO 145 

come." He says that but for the fact that he 
has neither sons nor money to lose, he could go 
down into history as a rival of Job. Masalla 
is just the place for greenhorns to get experi- 
ences. We had our share of them and I've 
begun to think that the town was built for just 
that purpose. Mr. Small tells of a Sunday 
afternoon when he, contrary to his custom, 
went with his Porto Rican assistant to conduct 
a service in a certain station heretofore left to 
the care of his Porto Rican helper. The 
teacher up there who usually accompanied 
them to play the baby organ was unable to go 
that day, so, as he had been practicing for 
some time himself, and had quite mastered 
hymns numbers one hundred and sixty-nine 
and one hundred and fourteen, he felt quite 
independent of her services. 

The congregation assembled in a shack, 
but was deeply impressed, he said, with his 
august presence, and as the service was about 
to open he sat himself down before his double 
manual pipe and proceeded to pipe. He ran 
his hands carelessly over a few chords, 
ahemed, and announced that they would open 
the meeting by singing hymn number one 
hundred and sixty-nine, and, as it was already 
a little bit late, they had better have but two 






146 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

hymns that day, all of which sounded, he 
thought, reasonable enough. He did not at- 
tempt to sing, as it took all his wits to pipe, so 
he piped a prelude and then piped through the 
first stanza, only to discover, to his confusion, 
that he had piped and they had not danced. 
He looked helplessly at his Porto Rican leader, 
who explained that they were not familiar 
with number one hundred and sixty-nine, and 
that it would be better to select something 
else. He felt a slight nervous chill, he said, as 
he realized that one of the two hymns that 
furnished his repertoire had vanished into thin 
air, but he boldly said, as he carelessly — but 
with a studied attempt at ease — turned the 
leaves of his book, "Then let us try number 
one hundred and fourteen." But, " pride goeth 
before destruction and a haughty spirit before 
a fall," for, alas and alack ! the hymn was not 
to be found. The only book out there contain- 
ing the notes was minus the page that bore hymn 
number one hundred and fourteen. It was the 
last time, he said, that he ever attempted to in- 
flict his piping on any one. Poor boy ! He is 
now in the hospital at San Juan. As soon as he 
is able he expects to return to Masalla for two 
months and then take a trip to the States. I 
am willing to wager my next horseback ride 



IN PORTO RICO 147 

that he does not come back alone. I cannot 
believe that there is not some girl at home 
who would be as delighted to come down here 
and turn the meat-grinder for him as I am to 
do it for Harry ; neither can I believe that he 
would not be delighted to have her. 

A breezy young woman at home said as she 
was starting for the mission field, " I feel 
towards missionary work as the Chicago girl 
feels every morning when she puts her shoe on. 
' It's a big thing and I'm glad to be in it.' " I 
should like to know that girl, for I feel the 
same way and I would not have you think we 
joke all the time. This missionarying is dead 
serious business, but at the same time there is a 
tremendous amount of fun in it. Worldly, 
cynical people laugh at us and want to extermi- 
nate us and make what they consider clever jokes 
about missionaries. If we were but silent suffer- 
ers their darts might hurt us, so we, perforce, 
must laugh, or we would have heart failure; 
sometimes we laugh at each other and sometimes 
we laugh at worldly, cynical people — but, way 
deep down, we feel sorry for them, because they 
are so worldly and cynical and have not yet 
had even a faint glimpse of Christ in all His 
loveliness, nor have they ever felt the heart 
thrill of joy and contentment that comes with 



148 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

spreading this loveliness in the dark corners of 
the earth. Poor worldly, cynical people ! How 
we pity you ! Yon do not know what you are 
missing and you don't know yourselves that you 
don't know. After you have spent your little 
handful of cynical years and are blase and 
bowed down near to the grave and are still 
worldly and cynical (because it is the only 
thing you know how to be) when people are all 
tired of your jokes, what are you going to do ? 
We will be old, too, by that time, and we will 
still be sorry for you. Why then are you so 
worldly and cynical ? 

Doquiere, June 28, 1907. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

We are feeling better than when we last 
wrote, and working day and night to get our 
house finished by the end of the summer vaca- 
tion. Our three girls will soon leave for the 
summer and we will again be left to uphold 
American dignity alone, so we are not looking 
forward to anything of a particularly exciting 
nature to entertain us during these months. I 
try to think of other things, but my mind al- 
ways goes back to the house which grows at 
the rate of a century plant. It is getting on 
our nerves and we have about come to the con- 



IN POKTO RICO 149 

elusion that we would rather live in a shack 
than to go through such an upheaval of affairs 
as the building of a house requires in Porto 
Rico. We began it some three months ago 
and we thought it would be almost finished by 
this time, but it is only begun. Porto Ricans 
have their own way of doing things and there 
is no use trying to change it. If you give them 
time enough they will produce a pretty good 
thing in most any line, but they do not know 
how to work under pressure. I shall feel like 
a queen in her palace when once we can live in 
a house of our own, but I sometimes wonder if 
any such pleasure will ever be ours in Porto 
Rico. 

As things in general give promise of being 
dull for me these days, I try to take in every- 
thing that affords me diversion from the some- 
times humdrum weekly round. To-day I was 
sitting on the side balcony, where a huge al- 
mond tree grows up and shades us, and I had 
on clean fresh white from shoes to collar and a 
nice breeze came in from the ocean to cool me 
as I sat there at work on a missionary report, 
which, to worldly people would be dry enough, 
I know. In the midst of this, a very dirty little 
black girl with woolly pugs and scuffy, grimy 
feet and an ugly running sore, came in to tell 



150 AN AMEKICAN BRIDE 

me that her foot was awfully sore and that they 
had tried for two months to cure it and that it 
hurt her and would I please give her some 
medicine. Of course I would, so I put aside 
my letter and got some fresh water and soap, 
a bandage and my much used bottle of peroxide, 
and sent out for some medicine. 

I was just in the act of putting poor little 
Sinferosa to rights when there appeared at the 
doorway two women, who, I saw at once, were 
Americans. They explained that they were 
tourists and had come in from the steamer that 
was then unloading freight in the harbor. I 
welcomed them and asked them to sit down 
while I finished dressing the sore foot. They 
were hot and very dusty and loaded down with 
what they supposed to be articles representing 
Porto Eico art and workmanship, but what 
were, in fact, a collection of trinkets for the 
most part manufactured in the United States 
and shipped here, and for which they had 
paid the usual high tourists' rates. Their belts 
parted badly at the back and they said " ain't " 
and " 'tain't " and seemed bored with everything 
they saw. I felt so sorry for them and asked 
them to stay a while until the heat of the day 
had passed, and they seemed grateful. I gave 
them some water with lime juice and sugar and 



IN PORTO RICO 151 

they sighed and wondered how in the world I 
could stand it to drink lemonade without ice, 
and did I really live in such a dreadful country, 
and how could I bear to touch such a dirty lit- 
tle colored girl as Sinferosa was, and how could 
anybody possibly say they enjoyed such a life. 
I assured them that it was indeed a very pleas- 
ant way to spend one's time and felt not a 
little sorry for them as they trudged away, for 
I knew that they did not know the secret of 
my happiness. I watched them, too, as they 
went down the street, still hot and tired and 
bored, and then I went back to my missionary 
letter, feeling cooler than ever in my clean 
linen clothes, and the almond tree seemed a 
little more friendly, the breeze from the ocean 
was a little more refreshing, and I was a little 
gladder that I had been kind to a very dirty 
little dark girl with woolly pugs and scuffy, 
grimy feet, and that I had given her some med- 
icine for her foot that was awfully sore. There 
are so many, many Sinferosas in the world and 
so many, many things that are awfully sore that 
need so much medicine ! Why are there so 
many people who are bored when they might 
be washing scuffy, grimy little feet, and why is 
there so much money lying idle when it might 
be buying medicine for awfully sore things ? 



152 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

Doquiere, Aug. #, 1907. 
Dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Your letter, telling us of the day you 
spent in San Francisco, made us wish we were 
there. What a treat to wander through those 
fascinating Chinese shops ! I do so love the 
oriental things and whenever I think of dainty 
little Japan, I feel badly all over again, because 
we were not allowed to go there. But we try 
to be good soldiers and obey orders even if we 
do love hammered brass and hand-painted 
china, pretty silks and cherry blossoms and 
bamboo, better than old tomato cans, cocoanut 
shells, faded calico and kerosene boxes. The 
Porto Rican seems to be utterly lacking in any 
aesthetic sense. There is not a thing here 
that approaches an art that can be said to be 
distinctively Porto Rican. 

Their homes are, for the most part, bare and 
unattractive, and the pity is that they don't 
seem to know it. Most of the houses follow 
the same model — square, with an L running 
back, and perfect symmetry seems to be the 
ideal of good taste. If there is a chair on this 
side of the room, there must be one on that side 
in exactly the corresponding position. The 
only tables they will tolerate are centre tables, 
or a pair of side tables, and their cup of con- 



IN POETO RICO 153 

tentment is full to overflowing if their purse 
can afford a dozen chairs, four rockers with 
tidies on them, and a sofa all to match, said 
articles to be arranged in all cases as follows : 
The sofa is in the middle of the side of the 
room opposite the balcony, straight chairs 
pasted in a row around the remaining walls 
and one rocking-chair on each corner of the rug, 
or the place where the rug would be, if they 
had one. But the crowning glory of the sola 
is the inevitable centre table, stacked as full as 
it can stick with all sorts of things, ranging 
from wonderful blue, pink, or green glass vases 
(always a pair of them) to those assorted bisque 
creations such as boy-blue, hen-and-chickens, 
Mary had a little lamb, Saint John and the 
Yirgin Mary. 

We are told that some time ago the people of 
this city voted to beautify the plaza and began 
the undertaking by cutting down four most 
beautiful flaming frambollan trees that stood 
one on each corner of the square. Then they 
covered the places with cement so that people 
could walk there. Brick and mortar are more 
beautiful in their eyes any day than the most 
lavish of nature's gifts. Houses are built 
with the doors opening directly on the side- 
walks, and the gardens, of which there aro 



154 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

many, are hidden back of the houses and walled 
in until all possible sight of them is cut off. So 
what might be a veritable fairy bower is found, 
upon close inspection, to be but a squalid, dirty, 
tumbled-down village. There is everything 
here to make the whole island into a magnifi- 
cent garden except the eyes to see nature's gifts 
and a love of beauty that is strong enough to 
utilize them. To see beauty in Porto Rico, one 
must leave the city and take to the country. 
Here the people live picturesquely, not because 
they choose to do so, but because they can't 
help it. "What one sees at a glance, however, 
is not the best, but the commoner and worst 
class of homes. The better class of people live 
more within doors. Some of the best houses, 
having nothing to recommend them from the 
outside, are found, when one has entered, to be 
delightfully cool and attractive and elegantly 
furnished in solid mahogany and other valuable 
materials. In the larger cities, especially, 
which were the centres of the now almost absent 
and forgotten Spanish life and gayety, we find 
the kind of houses we read about. The very 
sight of them sheds romance about the place. 
We find here marble floors, high heavy beamed 
ceilings, arched doors and windows, roof gardens, 
latticed balconies, spacious halls and salons, and 




Copyright, by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

In a Cocoanut Forest 



i 



IN PORTO RICO 155 

handsomely decorated corridors, all of which, in 
the days of the Spanish cavalier and the win- 
some senorita, did their part to make up the life 
of luxurious indolence of old Spain. 

To the thoughtful mind there is something 
exceedingly pathetic in the shifting of scenes 
that is taking place in this little land, and no 
one who has a heart big enough to in any 
measure share the sorrows of others, can, with- 
out a throb of deepest sympathy, watch the 
passing of the old and the invasion of the new, 
nor censure those who have not been able to ac- 
cept the new in all its consequences. The 
Americanizing process does not rest so sadly 
on the young, but it is touching indeed to see 
those who are already too far spent in years to 
adapt themselves to changes, bereft of all that 
made their younger lives dear to them, holding 
on to the little that is left of their former selves, 
and nursing with pathetic tenacity the memory 
of better days. At the time of the American 
invasion here, practically all of the wealth and 
influence of the island was in the hands of the 
Spaniards, who, so far as they were able, left to 
return to their mother country. I have seen 
the wife and the daughters of a once wealthy 
plantation owner reduced to a mere shack of a 
dwelling, where they eke out a pitiful existence 



156 AN AMEKICAN BRIDE 

by making lace — a genteel but profitless occupa- 
tion. Their poverty has never affected their 
innate gentility or their dignity of bearing or 
their position in society. Their very presence 
is queenly and their pride unbroken, though 
they enjoy only the most meagre comforts of 
life, the plainest of food, and the cheapest of 
clothing. Their patrician blood is as pure as it 
ever was and money cannot buy social recogni- 
tion in Porto Eico, nor the loss of money rob 
them of the place bequeathed them by noble 
sires. 

The destruction of rich plantations by the 
cyclone of 1899 was responsible for the loss of 
much money and property here, but this might 
have been overcome had it not followed so 
closely upon the American occupation (which 
closed the markets of France and Spain and 
left only the American markets open, where 
prices were so much lower) that land owners 
were unable to recover themselves and were 
forced, in many cases, to abandon their plan- 
tations. The poor, they tell us, were in 
Spanish times poorer and the rich were richer. 
Whatever may be the facts in this regard, 
there are to be found here many instances of 
individual suffering that enlist our deepest 
sympathy. There is a class of all-sufficient 3 



IN PORTO RICO 157 

self-satisfied, swaggering Americans who al- 
ways take it for granted that things American 
are necessarily the best, and they are no special 
ornament to Porto Rico. The average Porto 
Rican will tell you he considers that, as a 
whole, the island has been benefited by 
American rule, yet of the two political parties 
found here, the anti- American party is in 
power. 

Now this is all I dare say on such a profound 
question that rightly belongs to profound 
minds, for I do not know anything more about 
it and Harry just told me that. I try to under- 
stand a woman's share of politics, but Harry 
has to explain the whole question to me afresh 
on every election day and then I straightway 
forget what manner of thing it is, just as nine 
out of every ten women always do, but what I 
can see here is the shattering of much that is 
good and the substituting of much that is bad. 
The massive stone structures that the tropic 
dwellers knew so well how to build are giving 
way to flimsy American dwellings, pine boards 
and varnish are replacing polished mahogany 
and marble, the notes of the guitar and the 
serenade are now seldom heard and screeching 
phonographs fill up our Sunday afternoons. 
On the streets one is greeted by drunken men 



158 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

— Americans, too, for when a Porto Rican 
wants to get drunk he usually stays at home 
to do it. The only closed saloons here are 
American. Not long since our teachers found 
a man lying in their yard, intoxicated, as we 
soon learned. A policeman was summoned to 
take charge of the case. " Es Americano" 
he said, " Unpaisano suyo " (He's an American, 
one of your countrymen). And we said " Yes " 
and felt mighty proud of him ! 

In the time we have lived here we have 
seen but one intoxicated Porto Rican and he 
was still in possession of his legs. This is not 
to say, however, that the people here do not 
drink, though they do not drink as we do. 
They sip a great deal, and to refuse the social 
glass is to make oneself noticeable and " queer," 
but they know when to stop. The Porto Rican 
is ever decent, courteous, respectful and well- 
behaved. He is never rude. I have been in 
the company of scores of people all playing 
carnival in wildest hilarity, yet, in passing in 
the street below, one would never know that 
anything was taking place. How they do love 
the city and the plaza, and the balcony ! 
There are some lines from Browning which 
could easily have been written about the Porto 
Ricans, though I believe it is the Italian the 



IN PORTO RICO 159 

author has in mind. They are these, from " Up 
at the Villa — Down in the City." 



" Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare 
The house for me, no doubt, were a house in the city 

square ; 
Ah, such a life, such a life, as one leads at the window 

there. 

4 ' Something to see, by Bacchus, something to hear at least ! 
There, the whole day long, one's life is a perfect feast : 
While up at the villa one lives, I maintain it, no more 
than a beast. 

11 Well now, look at our villa ! stuck like the horn of a bull 
Just on a mountain's edge as bare as the creature's skull, 
Save a mere shag of a bush with hardly a leaf to pull ! 
— I scratch my own sometimes to see if the hairs turned 
wool. 

" But the city, oh, the city— the square with the houses ! 
Why? 

They are stone faced, white as a curd, there's something 
to take the eye ! 

Houses in four straight lines, not a single front awry ; 

You watch who crosses and gossips, who saunters, who 
hurries by ; 

Green blinds, as a matter of course, to draw when the sun 
gets high : 

And the shop with fanciful signs which are printed prop- 
erly. 



Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife 
Oh, a day in the city square, there is no such pleasure in 
life!" 



160 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

But here I am rambling again. I sometimes 
wonder if you do not weary before you get 
through my letters. What are we doing? 
Just what we were doing when I last wrote. 
Harry prepares his sermons and preaches them, 
holds his classes for his three Porto Rican 
helpers, visits and goes the regular rounds of a 
missionary; I play the organ for him, teach 
two Sunday-school classes, study Spanish to 
the best of my debility, cook some, mend some, 
train cooks and do all sorts of uninteresting 
things that a pastor's assistant is supposed 
to do. 

I am planning to try my powers this winter 
on the infant class at Sunday-school. The 
streets are full of future presidents and ladies 
of the White House — black, some of them, to 
be sure, but I think that the president and I 
together can manage that phase of the question, 
for, by the time I get a little black fellow 
trained up to fill our nation's executive chair, 
he will have educated the public up to the point 
of electing him. Many of them wear little 
more than the garb with which nature endowed 
them but I can make them some little pink and 
blue gingham shirties and aprons and they will 
feel quite dressed up in them, as indeed they 
will be, and they will come to church on Sunday 



IN PORTO RICO 161 

mornings with, their little woolly pugs tied up 
in fringy red calico strings, their black faces 
broadening into sweet, sunny grins that show 
their white teeth, and they will dangle their 
bare feet and beam at me until I am sure my 
reward is great for coming to Porto Rico. 

But do not think that all the children here 
are black. Many of them are as pink and 
white and sweet and clean and jaunty as a 
batch of new, fluffy, downy chicks, but, some- 
how, as much as I love their silken coats and 
dainty " peeps," the black babies — they are like 
little wet straggling turkeys — who seem so 
neglected and " cheep " so mournfully and look 
so muddy and unhappy, they appeal to me 
most. There are a great many orphans here, 
too, and when I am a rich, smart, eloquent 
woman, I want to build a home for them ; but, 
for the present, 1 must learn my verbs, cook a 
little, mend a little, watch my pretty chicks, 
and take care of my little wet turkeys. 

Doquiere, Sept. 00, 1907. 
My dearest Mother Gertrude : 

School reopens in a few days and our 
own three girls are with us once more, looking 
as blooming and fresh and resolute, withal, as 
three lives devoted to the service of others ever 



162 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

could look. I always renew my strength and 
mount up on wings like the eagle whenever 
they come back from their vacation. Next 
spring we are to have a vacation and a welcome 
one it will be. It has been so hot at times this 
summer that we have been afraid the corn 
would all pop before it was ripe, and we have 
almost wilted, but the delicious cool of the 
winter months will soon be here and we shall 
revive with the flowers. 

My little widow's face is as sweet as ever — a 
little more softened by a little more pain, but 
still strong and kindly. And we have a secret 
which we are trying to keep from her because 
we promised to do it, but how I want to tell 
her, just to make her heart a little gladder. 
Ever since Harry found the lonely man in New 
York and talked with him, he and Harry have 
been corresponding, and now he writes that 
ever since his dear lady left he has been trying 
to forget that he loves her, but that those blue 
eyes and her brave spirit ever haunt him. I'm 
glad of it, and I hope he has suffered hours and 
hours of pain, just as I know she has. It will 
be good for what ails him. Now, what do you 
suppose he proposes to do ? He says he does 
not feel any more missionary than he did two 
years ago and that he is going to assert his 



IN PORTO RICO 163 

claim over her and that there is plenty of work 
to be done at home (he seems to forget, though, 
that there are thousands of people there to do 
it) and that he has decided to come down here 
in the spring and storm the castle and take her 
home, and nobody must tell her, either, for she 
is to be taken by surprise. He must be, even 
with all his fine qualities, a conceited chap, and 
I opine that he has not "reckoned with his 
host." He asks us to help him out and we are 
going to do it, but we cannot promise to sub- 
scribe to all of his plans. At any rate, it is 
exciting enough, and whatever part we take 
we'll play to the end. The hero and the 
heroine are fixed, of course, and the other girls 
may make up the chorus, and Harry may be 
stage manager, but I insist upon being the vil- 
lain. I mean to write the whole thing to Mrs. 
Williams to-night, and she must be the fairy 
godmother. The mere thought of it all is 
enough to spice up the entire winter, and I have 
already forgotten that I am tired. 

My rag-tag school that I wrote you about is 
too dear and fascinating for anything. I did 
not know that you would be interested in the 
details of this little corner of our vineyard 
down here, but, since you ask for it, I will tell 
you all about it. 






164 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

Some time before the Americans took posses- 
sion of the island, we are told, a small tract of 
land, lying down the beach to the south of town 
with cocoanut palms all about it, was purchased 
by the Masons of this place to be used as a 
cemetery, as live heretics were not allowed to 
bury dead heretics within the sacred enclosure 
— the town cemetery — and besides, you know a 
Romanist always loves a Mason backwards. 
However, before this new ground was used, 
Uncle Sam came here to live and he gave the 
Masons their share in " the garden of sleep." 
This was soon followed by the cyclone, which 
left so many poor people homeless, so the land 
among the cocoanut palms was given over to 
them and they were allowed to go there with- 
out cost and build their huts for themselves and 
their families. Naturally enough, the place, 
though soon filled, did not attract a very high 
class of people, as there are not many feelings 
so strong in the Spanish heart as the consola- 
tion they get from being better than somebody 
else. 

No one here is so poor but he can tell you of 
some one who is poorer, or one who is quite as 
low as somebody else he knows of, and no one 
so black that he cannot tell you of a dozen peo- 
ple who are blacker. So it came that only 



IN PORTO RICO 165 

those who were completely pushed to the wall 
availed themselves of the proffered relief. One 
old woman, a sweet Christian too, whom I love 
dearly, and who lives just outside the confines 
of this little district known as Pueblo Nuevo, 
told me with ill-disguised pride that she was no 
pauper — that she paid twenty-five cents a 
month for the little patch of ground where her 
shack stood, and that only those who are very 
common indeed live in Pueblo ISTuevo, and that 
those who still had " un poquito de dignidad " 
(a little dignity) left, lived outside. Dear old 
soul ! I would not deprive her of such a com- 
forting thought for anything. How these peo- 
ple do hug their dignidad, but our Master 
Himself said, " Blessed are ye poor." Perhaps 
if more of our " degenerate sons of noble sires " 
would reflect oftener on better days, they 
would be the stronger and better for their re- 
flection. 

So it came about that the small degenerate 
sons of Pueblo Nuevo who knew a great deal 
more about the ocean and the sand and the 
birds and of nature's ways than they did about 
clothes and books and God's love, had never 
been to school. There was no use telling their 
parents that they ought to send their children 
up to the big town school, for they were cer- 



166 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

tain that schools were for the rich and the 
proud alone and they who were so poor and 
who had no " dignidad " should not aspire to 
such luxury ; so we said within ourselves that 
if the mountain would not come to Mohammed, 
Mohammed must go to the mountain. We had 
some surplus though much worn school-books, 
a few other supplies, and some old desks that a 
carpenter had made in the earlier days of our 
large mission school. Such desks as they were ! 
When one of these babies sat down in front of 
one of them it was like trying to eat dinner 
off the mantelpiece, but we made the best of 
them. One of the teachers said she was cer- 
tain it would not be a sin to worship them as 
they surely were not a likeness of anything in 
the heavens above or in the earth beneath or in 
the waters under the earth. We also had at 
our disposal ten dollars per month, the gift of a 
small church at home which wanted to help ; 
so with my old lady friend who pays for the 
land where her hut stands, I canvassed the lit- 
tle district and told the people that if they 
would do a little to help, I would furnish books 
and a teacher and they should have a school 
there in their own town. This seemed to touch 
a responsive chord in their hearts, and they 
agreed to send their children and pay two, 



IN PORTO RICO 167 

three, or four cents per week, according to the 
number of the family. This amounted to two 
dollars per month, with which we rented a lit- 
tle twelve by fourteen foot hut for a schoolhouse, 
and with the ten dollars I secured the services 
of a bright girl in our church who had gradu- 
ated from the eighth grade in the public school, 
and we started our work. There was hardly a 
person in the little village who could read or 
write, and people laughed at me and said I did 
not understand the Porto Ricans or I would 
know better than to try to help Pueblo Nuevo, 
but we went right on, my old lady friend do- 
ing visiting and Bible reading in the homes, 
and my teacher devoting herself heart and soul 
to her work. 

Now, after a year and a half, we have a 
school of thirty-five children, and some of them 
are ready to enter the third grade, and I just 
love every one of them. All they need is a 
chance, and they will rise as well as any of us. 
I feel sure that ten dollars per month never 
reaped a bigger harvest than it does here. "We 
have weekly preaching services and fourteen 
people have become members of the church. 
The women keep their homes better, the streets 
are cleaner, the children are more tidy, and 
their faces are brighter ; and now, whenever I 



168 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

go there, I am greeted by happier and lighter 
hearts than the place formerly knew, and this 
alone is worth all the thumps and bumps and 
inconveniences I have had since I came here. 
A number of the children even take their les- 
sons home with them at night, and by the light 
of a nickering, crazy little torch lamp they 
teach their parents what they have learned 
through the day. How they do love the pic- 
tures of the old colored Sunday-school lesson 
charts that adorn the walls of the schoolhouse, 
and you should just hear them review their 
Bible lessons ! They can tell you all the 
stories from Adam and Eve in the Garden to 
that of the seven golden candlesticks, which are 
the seven churches of Asia. 

Not long since, a woman from New York, 
who was touring the island, came to Doquiere 
and spent a few days with us. She wanted to 
see our work, she said, so at eight o'clock in 
the morning I started with her for my little 
school. "We arrived in time for opening exer- 
cises and were invited to enter. The children, 
not to mention the somewhat conscious teacher, 
were noticeably impressed with our presence. 
They looked admiringly at the long black 
plume in my friend's hat and examined her 
from head to foot when they discovered the 



IN PORTO KICO 169 

swish-swash of her taffeta shirt-waist suit. She, 
too, was impressed, and being of somewhat 
Amazonian proportions, she measured with her 
eye the height of the room before she ventured 
to enter, looking suspiciously at the props and 
stilts upon which the house rested. However, 
I appeared not to notice her hesitancy and 
stepped aside for her to enter, which she did ; 
but such a look of genuine alarm came into her 
face as her two hundred pounds avoirdupois 
landed on the squeaky, rickety floor and her 
plume brushed the roof, that I laughed outright, 
and told her that I thought the house would 
stand the strain for a few moments at least, 
though I did not feel at all sure of my ground. 
With this we sat down, but I noticed that she 
did not dare move a muscle for fear of break- 
ing asunder the pillars and, like Samson, slaying 
the multitude — for a multitude it truly was for 
that little room. They sang, " Jesus es la luz 
del Mundo" ("The Light of the World is 
Jesus "), and then the teacher announced that 
Angelito would lead us in prayer. At this, 
seven-year-old Angelito stood up and closed his 
eyes while every other head bent down on the 
desk before it, and Angelito, in a sweet, child- 
ish voice, said the "Padre JVuestro." After 
this the teacher read a chapter from the Bible, 



170 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

and then, at my request, they reviewed their 
Bible work, which I interpreted as we went 
along. They told us all about the first man 
and the first woman, Moses, Joseph and Abra- 
ham, Delilah, Samson, Daniel and David. 
Here the children all laughed. The teacher 
said, " Rafaelito, who was David ? " "A shep- 
herd boy," was the response. "And who 
was Goliath ? " she went on. " A giant," 
came promptly from Rafaelito. " But what is 
a giant ? " she pursued. He paused a moment, 
then said, " A man as tall as a palm tree " — 
some of them are two hundred feet high, and 
that was the biggest thing he knew anything 
about. Then the teacher pelted them with 
questions and they went through the Old Tes- 
tament, recited verses from the Psalms, re- 
hearsed all of the parables and the miracles, 
and then passed on through to Revelation. 
Before they were half through, the tears were 
rolling down our visitor's cheek and she told 
me that she had had her first sight of mission 
work. I was proud of my ragamuffins, too, 
and, though I had so often seen them and 
helped them and watched them grow, my tears 
mingled with hers, and I never before wished 
so hard that I was a millionaire. 

I did not mean to write such a long letter 



IN PORTO RICO 171 

and I hope you won't weary before you read it 
through, but my dear shack school babies touch 
so many springs in my heart that I cannot say 
just a few things about them. I must either 
keep still, or, as some one has said, tie my tongue 
in the middle and let it wobble at both ends. 



Boquiere, Oct. 23, 1907. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

For several days our attention has been 
quite taken up with preparations for an "at 
home " to all of our church-members who live 
in the city. We were obliged to limit it to the 
city, as we could not possibly have entertained 
the six hundred members who live throughout 
the district. The event was a pleasant success 
for us all. For some time this question has vexed 
us, for our house was not large enough for all 
we should invite, and besides there was the 
question of " dignidad " to consider and that is 
quite a serious one here. It was unreasonable 
to suppose that the " high-ups " would care to 
mingle in a social gathering in our house with 
their servants and others who are humble but 
also members of our church, so we had to give 
up the idea until we hit upon the plan of 
giving an open air " at home " in the church- 



172 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



yard, the church being the one and only place 
here where social equality prevails. 

There are in the churchyard some banana 
palms, cocoanut palms, and some coffee trees, 
an old stone well, and ever so many roses. 
Among these we erected a platform, moved 
the church chairs out, decorated some pretty 
refreshment booths where we served the 
favorite sweets, and hung the yard with 
Japanese lanterns. We arranged a pretty 
programme, hired an orchestra of six pieces, 
and Harry and I received our guests at an 
accidental passageway formed by the well 
and the corner of the church. The evening 
was as perfect as though Diana herself were in 
league with us. Not a breath of wind dis- 
turbed our lights, and not a cloud marred the 
purple heavens, and the moon, assisted by 
every star, — from the great deep ones that 
twinkle, to the tiniest ones that make up the 
milky way, proffered their light to enhance 
the evening. It was such a night as is found 
only beneath tropical skies. Our guests, 
including the black horny fisted peon and his 
shy senora, and the young folks who make up 
the Christian Endeavor Society, and the more 
wealthy and favored families who belong 
to us, all mingled together and all had a 



IN PORTO RICO 173 

good time. We had songs, recitations and 
speeches by appropriate people, and, after the 
proscribed programme had been disposed of, 
the orchestra threw in a few extras by way of 
giving us our money's worth. Among other 
up-to-date classics they most sympathetically 
rendered " After the, Ball." I could hardly 
believe my ears. Little Texas rushed over to 
me and said, " Eow listen a moment ! Doesn't 
that sound familiar? It seems to me I've 
heard that piece somewhere before." After 
this they played another waltz and another, for 
by this time all the servants and some other 
people, too, whose back-yards back up against 
the churchyard, had assembled on the other 
side of the dividing fence and were enjoying a 
dance at our expense. Before I knew it, I 
caught myself beating time with one foot 
while my missionary foot said, " Don't ! It 
isn't becoming to you ! " 

On Thursday afternoon of last week, hearing 
a loud rap at our front door, I answered the 
summons and was greeted by an old man — an 
American, I saw at a glance, who inquired if 
Mr. Blythe were at home. I told him that he 
was, and asked would he come in and sit down 
while I called him. When Harry entered I saw 
at once that he was as much in the dark as to 



174 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

our guest's identity as I was, but he explained 
that he was Mr. So-and-So, and that a brother 
thus-and-so who lived in the town above us 
had sent him there, that he was travelling over 
the island and was delighted to see us. "We, 
too, were not ungrateful for even this chance 
call from one of our own countrymen, so we 
talked with him for a half hour or so, and then 
we began to grow a little bit restless, as we 
both had a full afternoon's work before us. 
He, however, seemed to be enjoying himself 
and was in no hurry, so he talked on, relating 
the history of his life and all his achievements 
and failures. 

By four o'clock Harry began to shift in his 
chair, and by five I had to excuse myself and 
start dinner, as we were planning to go out to a 
wedding in the evening. By five forty-five 
dinner was ready, and as our guest still re- 
mained, we invited him to dine with us. This 
he most willingly did, occupying the entire 
dinner hour with a detailed rehearsal of his ex- 
periences during a seasick voyage down, relat- 
ing carefully all he felt, said and did. At seven 
o'clock he showed no signs of departing, so we 
braved up to the occasion : I told him that we 
regretted to feel obliged to tell him that we 
could not ask him to pass the night with us, but 



IN PORTO RICO 175 

as we had been cleaning and rearranging our 
guest-room and had not been expecting com- 
pany, we were not in a position to offer our 
hospitality. " Oh," he replied, " don't worry 
about my comfort, I can easily sleep on this 
lounge," referring to a small stiff-backed, cane- 
seated sofa upon which he sat. I left the room 
and nodded to Harry to follow me, and we held 
a hasty conference. I was afraid to leave him 
alone in the house, and afraid to stay with him. 
I had fired my gun and missed my mark, and 
now it was Harry's turn. He sent Felix to the 
hotel to hire a room for our guest and then he 
returned to the sola and said, " If we had known 
you were coming, we could have as well as not 
been prepared for you, Mr. So-and-So, but we 
hope you will be comfortable in the room I 
have for you in the hotel across the way." 
Then he explained that he had a wedding at 
seven-thirty and that I was to accompany him, 
and that we felt obliged to start very soon and 
he hoped we would be pardoned if we seemed 
in any way to hurry him. He assured us that 
we had been very kind to him, and we then 
made ready to start, but he was looking over a 
book that he had, and seemed to be unmoved by 
the seriousness of the occasion, so we said, 
" Well, Brother So-and-So, we feel that we must 






176 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

start now as it is already seven fifteen o'clock," 
and by way of reply he said he was sure he 
would be very comfortable on the lounge, and 
as it was now a little bit late I need not bother 
to make it up then and he hoped we would have 
a pleasant evening out. Harry gave me such 
a look of desperation that I almost laughed in 
his face, but I escaped from the room and left 
him to deal with his adversary as best he could, 
and I was heartless enough to laugh when I saw 
him completely floored. But he arose to the 
situation again: "Felix," he said, "are you 
ready to go now? Here is the gentleman's 
suit case," he added, taking up the carpetbag 
which had been deposited at the end of the 
" lounge," and at the same time turning the 
light down. " Felix is ready to take you 
to the hotel now, Mr. So-and-So, — and — 
I trust you will rest well," he added nerv- 
ously, as he fairly shoved the two out of the 
front door. We almost ran to the wedding 
and then waited an hour for the bride, as 
usual. 

The next morning our friend was on hand, as 
chipper as ever, for breakfast. Not a word was 
said about his plans until about ten o'clock, 
when he asked me what time the train went to 
Loma Vista, and with a sigh of relief I told 



IN PORTO RICO 177 

him that it left at twelve-fifty and would he, I 
asked, feeling a sudden burst of sympathy for 
his gray head and his bent, tottering, childish 
figure, would he, I urged again, stay with us 
for luncheon at twelve o'clock ? Of course he 
would, and I was glad, for after all he was a 
wanderer in a strange land — a derelict he 
looked, cast on an aimless course by who knows 
what, and, had I followed my uncharitable 
impulse of the evening before and shut my door 
against him, I am sure I should have been con- 
sumed with shame before night. At lunch he 
said, rubbing his head the while, " Let's see, 
who is the minister at Loma Vista f " We 
gave him the names and addresses of three who 
were there and bade him Godspeed, sending 
Felix to carry his luggage to the train. We 
watched him as he tottered off in the noon- 
day heat, wiping the perspiration from his 
forehead. 

Tomasa has left me, life in an American 
household having been too strenuous for her, 
and life, at the pace she set, being too slow for 
me. She was to be succeeded by one Juana by 
name. I had engaged her on Wednesday after- 
noon and on Thursday morning, before I was 
up, she had arrived, having been admitted by 
Felix, who carries a key, and I was awakened 



178 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

that morning by the most satisfied make-your- 
self-at-home strains of music I had ever heard. 
I reflected as I turned over for a final doze that 
the neighbors on our left must have a new cook, 
and then, as I realized that I was without one, I 
decided to dispense with my nap and get up a 
little earlier so that I could be through with 
breakfast before the new acquisition should de- 
mand my attention for a formal introduction 
to her new round of duties. I dressed and 
hastened to the kitchen, and as I entered the 
door I pinched myself to make sure I was not 
walking in my sleep. Juana I, heir to the 
throne and the distinctions of Mary, queen of 
pots, stood before me, having already pulled out 
everything in the kitchen and arranged it to her 
own fancy and proclaimed herself mistress of 
all she surveyed. There was coffee enough on 
the stove for a regiment, and between her 
fingers she held a half -consumed cigar. I won't 
inflict upon you a rehearsal of all that fol- 
lowed, but, for the moment, I did regret the 
impulse that, in the larger interests of human- 
ity, had led me to part with my sweet nurse- 
maid. 

The weather is growing cooler and our spir- 
its are reviving to meet the occasion. Thanks- 
giving will soon be here again. 



IN PORTO RICO 179 

Doquiere, Dec. 1, 1907. 
Our dear Mother Gertrude : 

The Christmas season, our third one 
away from you, is again upon us. Of course 
we shall have ^fiesta, and, as I begin prepara- 
tion for it, I feel again all the intoxication of 
enthusiasm that belongs to the season and never 
fails to come with it. This year we shall cele- 
brate, too, at Pueblo Nuevo and already they 
have begun their preparation. My little school 
there seems like an old neglected garden that 
has been renovated and my thirty-five busy tots 
are like thirty-five plants that we once took for 
weeds, but found, after a little cultivation, to 
be roses. We have watched them unfold and 
put forth their tiny, tender leaves and we have 
kept the soil loose and watered their feeble ef- 
forts until they can now stand quite alone and 
even help a few weaker ones, who lean against 
them. Yesterday I started out on foot to see 
them, and on the way, I stopped at a little 
shack dwelling where I saw an old woman and 
a wee mite of a girlie seated on the floor bend- 
ing over their work of weaving hats, by which 
occupation the child, an orphan, assists her 
grandparents to eke out a living. 

" Good-morning, senora" I said, stopping at 
the door. I was invited to enter and was given 



180 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



the only chair they had, which happened to be 
a soap box. " Your hats are very pretty," I re- 
marked, after the usual greeting had been said. 
" Does the chiquita know how to weave them ? 
How old are you, little girl ? " I added, and 
her grandmother informed me that she was 
seven. " And does she not go to school ? " I 
asked, as she sat there in mute silence, her 
shoulders and back bent over and her little 
brown fingers deftly weaving in and out, in and 
out. I was told by the grandmother that she 
was an orphan, that an orphan's duty was to 
earn her bread, that they could not afford to 
keep her if she did not help, and that neither 
her mother nor her grandmother had gone to 
school before her, and that it was not necessary 
for her to go. I further learned that with two 
weeks' work the little hands could weave a hat 
that she could sell for from sixteen to twenty 
cents, which, after paying for the straw they 
used, left her as much as a penny a day — the 
price of the small loaf of bread in general use — 
the price of her education and of her very life's 
blood. I do not mean to stop until I have up- 
rooted that dear little weed and planted her in 
my garden of roses. 

I am so busy these days that my letters must 
be short until after Christmas. The teachers, 



IN PORTO RICO 181 

too, are very tired, but as busy as bees, and are 
looking forward with pleasure to their Christ- 
mas vacation. Mrs. Williams has sent them a 
box and a purse to help them celebrate the oc- 
casion. Isn't she the salt of the earth ? 

Juana I has abdicated. By the end of the 
first week, I had fully made up my mind that 
she was not the kind of a sovereign I cared to 
associate with even in my kitchen, so I did not 
pursue her. 

Doquiere, Jan. &, 1908. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

If you are not already tired of my chat- 
tering I want to tell you this week of some of 
the Christmas customs that hold down here and 
ask you if you do not think that we at home 
could afford to take a few lessons on the sub- 
ject. Christmas — that is, the anniversary of 
the birth of Christ — is, and ever had been a 
purely religious feast, until some few Amer- 
icans, who try to improve everything whether 
it needs improving or not, came here and in- 
augurated our Santa Claus. There are some of 
our own people here who feel and act on the 
principle of the little girl who said, " Mama says 
it's so, so that makes it so, whether it's so or 
not." They are thoroughly convinced that 



182 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

America is the only sensible, country in the 
world and that our ways are, as a matter of 
course, always the best. Before they came 
here to improve things in general, the Porto 
Ricans knew little and cared less for our 
pagan idea of Santa Claus. Now don't think I 
have any quarrel with old St. Nick, for he is 
now as wonderful and new to me every year as 
he ever was, and his packs hold the same fas- 
cination for me as they did in my childhood 
days — but he ought to be made to keep his 
place, and, in the interest of public education, 
his pedigree should be written up and published 
in tract form for free distribution. 

The children here know that Christmas day 
is the day on which the infant Jesus was born, 
and some one asked a little girl who Santa 
Claus was and she said that he was the saint 
of the Americanos. But at home Santa is so 
stirred and mixed and twisted into our Bible 
and churches, that the average Sunday-school 
scholar and half the grown people do not 
know whether to turn to Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, or John, or the Acts of the Apostles, to 
find the story of his reindeer and their impos- 
sible journeys over housetops and down chim- 
neys. Is it any wonder that the story of the 
Christ Child is quite crowded out of their 



IN PORTO RICO 183 

whirling, excited little brains ? Among the 
Porto Rican families Christmas is not disturbed 
by such fancies, and the great day of days to 
the children is January sixth : " Three Kings' 
Day" they call it, which they claim is the 
day when the three wise men came from the 
East with gifts for the Child Jesus. 

It seems to me that we are going to have a 
hard time improving upon this idea and I don't 
see how we are to better matters by importing 
a Santa Claus. But, however that may be, I 
did not start out to give a dissertation on 
Christmas day ideas, but to tell you how our 
southern children keep Three Kings' Day, 
which day expands into a week. And such a 
week ! Every home is astir with preparations, 
another new outfit of clothes comes into being 
for every member of the family, work is sus- 
pended for another week, as old and young, 
rich and poor, one and all join in the prepara- 
tion for the reception of the three kings who, 
according to long accepted tradition, are to 
come from Greece, India and Ethiopia, respect- 
ively, the first of these being mounted on a 
white beast, the second riding a bay, and the 
third, a black one. 

The whole island is on holiday and the 
country roads from Dan to Beersheba are 






184 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

lined with happy peasants who carry boxes 
containing the images of the three important 
personages to which you are expected to make 
at least a copper offering. The beggars, too, 
whose number is legion, make the most of the 
opportunity afforded by this occasion to add 
to their store, and the benedictions or maledic- 
tions that fall in copious showers from their lips 
are measured by the sum of your contributions, 
or your failure to take notice of their distress. 
This custom of almsgiving, I believe, originated 
in bygone times when the whole story of the 
three kings in all its detail was religiously be- 
lieved by the people and made a part of their 
worship, the images having been employed as 
a means of replenishing the coffers of the 
church at this time of the year. The day, 
however, has quite lost its religious significance 
as have most all of the great feast days and it 
is considered as little more than a grand holi- 
day for all. If there is any one thing the Porto 
Ricans seem to love above everything else, it is 
a fiesta. To pass a holiday without a fiesta of 
some kind is worse than going home and finding 
that when you get there the cupboard is bare. 
There are country house parties where beer 
— another American improvement ( ? ) — flows 
like water, and dancing continues all night, and 



EST PORTO RICO 185 

there are barbecues and bonfires and eating and 
drinking and dancing to the music of the wich- 
ero, an instrument made of a long gourd upon 
which are cut rows of notches and threads 
which the musician scratches to the time of the 
waltz and the two-step. We also hear rattle- 
bones and an occasional guitar which heads 
some serenading party and the Aguinaldo fills 
the air and is on everybody's lips. 

The latter is a survival of olden days, when 
her majesty's courtiers ushered in this season 
of merrymaking by singing their good wishes 
to their queen. It is sung in a chant-like strain 
that is at once catchy and monotonous, and 
there seems to be an endless chain of stanzas 
to it. If I ask what it is they are all singing, 
they tell me it is the Aguinaldo, and when I 
ask what the Aguinaldo is, they say it is a 
present, which means, I have learned, that I 
am expected to give something to the singers. 
I have listened to groups of children who have 
ventured up to our door, and to the more re- 
spectable people among us, too, as well as to 
beggars, and, although they all seem to know 
what they are saying, it is beyond my powers 
as a linguist to make rhyme or rhythm out of 
it. Our milkman who comes to town with his 
cans swinging in his saddle-bags has caught the 



186 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 



strain and an Aguinaldo goes with every guar- 
tilla of milk he dispenses. Juana II, now duly 
installed, buys an extra supply of Aguinaldo 
with every penny purchase she makes in the 
morning market and her viands are flavored 
with it. 

On the evening of the fifth of January, 
baskets ranging in quality from the pathetic 
little home-made tissue-paper affair of the 
shack dweller to the larger and more elaborate 
silk and gilt creations of the wealthier homes 
will be hung around the houses, or, better still, 
left in the gardens or on the front door-steps to 
receive the offerings of the never failing three 
kings who come in the night to fill their baskets 
as certainly and mysteriously as our Santa 
comes to fill our stockings. The children are 
too excited to sleep late in the morning, but 
they bound from their beds, — that is, in cases 
where a kind Providence has provided beds — 
or, if not, they pull themselves up from an old 
home-made hammock, a canvas cot, a straw 
mat on the floor, or even a bare floor. Their 
one thought is of their baskets, the Aguinaldo 
and the nightly visit with which they are sure 
they have been honored. 

We spent Christmas in our new house and 
we felt as grand as could be. We had our tree, 



IN PORTO RICO 187 

as usual, and some guests and a good time, 
quite like what we had the year before. Our 
house is both usable and pretty and we feel re- 
paid for the eight months of strain we under- 
went to get it up. I wish every missionary in 
every land had as good a place to live. We 
never have anything new given us, without 
feeling a deeper gratitude to the people at 
home, and a deeper love for our work here. 

Masalla, Feb. 2, 1908. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

You may be surprised to learn that 
Harry and I have separated and that I have 
taken to the woods. Last Friday the daily 
auto, which recently began operations between 
Doquiere and Masalla, stopped at our door, and 
to our surprise we were greeted by the princi- 
pal of the Masalla school, who told us that she 
had come down to see if I could help her out 
during the illness of her assistant. It was sud- 
den, but Harry said he could spare me if I 
could go, so I left him to keep bachelor quar- 
ters and took the return auto and here I am, a 
schoolma'am again. 

My trip up was one long to be remembered. 
A Porto Rican with a coach is daring enough, 
but if you want to see him at the height of his 



188 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

recklessness, just give him an auto. The man 
who brought me up here certainly deserves 
credit for not having dashed me to pieces. The 
way he rounded those mountain curves with 
great walls and overhanging rocks above our 
heads and gaping caverns and steep banks 
beneath us, is enough to make the most pre- 
destined Presbyterian in the world wonder if 
the Lord took automobiles with Porto Rican 
chauffeurs into account when He predestined 
people. The way hens did fly to right and left 
in front of us surely was an eye-opener, and the 
way a stiff-jointed, superannuated horse that 
chances to be snoozing in the middle of the 
road can run when that auto is after him, is 
nothing short of miraculous. We just grazed 
a dozen or more ox-teams and not a tail was 
taken off. 

I have never quite lost my fondness for 
Masalla, our first love. It is perched high up 
in the mountains with a wall of almost barren 
rocks guarding it from behind, while on the 
other three sides are little valleys and ravines 
and canyons thickly set with shade-trees that 
hide rich little coffee fields. The public road 
ends here, and to go further, one must mount a 
horse and follow broken mountain paths or 
rough roads cut deep by the wheels of th§ 



IN PORTO RICO 189 

lumbersome ox-carts. By these you are led 
through little valleys into larger ones and 
through shady, damp ravines and passes that 
widen and deepen until you find yourself back 
in the high mountains in the very heart of the 
coffee district. Here the landscape thus shut 
off from the outside world, is beautiful beyond 
description. This district was Porto Rico's 
gold mine during Spanish times and it is now 
probably the place where the change from 
Spanish to American rule is most keenly felt. 
I have seen a coffee plantation of four hundred 
acres not far from here completely abandoned, 
the coffee trees growing wild and rank, the 
buildings falling to pieces, and hundreds of 
orange trees scattered about as they are among 
the coffee ^ trees, left to carry their golden bur- 
dens until they fall from their own weight and 
are left to decay, their market value being less 
than the expense necessary to harvest them and 
carry them from the inaccessible plantation. 

But I am off my subject again. I began to 
tell you about myself : I am temporarily in 
charge of the primary room in the Presbyterian 
school at Masalla. I have always had my 
doubts as to the justice and the success of the 
prevailing method of teaching here, for neither 
Porto Rican nor American teachers are supposed 






190 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

to use anything but English in the classes above 
the second grade. Since it is an established 
rule in this particular school to begin the use of 
English with the wee tots, I determined to give 
it a fair trial, now that I had the raw material 
for the experiment before me. 

My beginners' class consists of eight fat, 
twisting, wriggling, black-eyed children who 
have never even heard a word of English in 
their lives. I had practiced the kindergarten 
smile before my mirror that very morning in 
my own room, so at this point I put it on, and 
lined my class up around me and began : " Now, 
children, you know we are going to talk Eng- 
lish." Eight pair of frightened eyes looked up 
at me,* eight chubby brown hands began to 
twist their coat buttons or crumple up their 
petticoats, while eight little roly-poly bodies 
began to squirm. " Now, let us count," I con- 
tinued, "all together, now, one, two, three, 

four " I counted up to ten and by way 

of response I received some more squirming. 
Then I counted again, with the same result, 
only one of the more daring of the number 
turned around and began to make marks on the 
blackboard and a half dozen more craned about 
to see what he was doing, but I put my line to 
rights and proceeded, this time smiling harder 



IN PORTO RICO 191 

and longer than at first. I counted again and 
again and after a while they were tired and I 
dismissed them. In a few days it dawned upon 
them that I was counting. Then I said, 
" Carmita, one finger," holding up one finger 
at the same time, but poor Carmita began such 
a series of contortions that I was alarmed, so I 
said, " Rafaelito, one finger, put up one finger 
— everybody put up one finger," but still I got 
nothing but wriggling and twisting. Then I 
held up one finger again and assisted Carmita in 
the same feat, and in an instant all the fore- 
fingers went up, and we counted fingers. After 
several days more of this, they had the firmly 
fixed idea that they were to do just as I did, 
and I was highly elated over the strides they 
were taking. But one day I was particularly 
tired and they seemed particularly stupid, and 
I lost patience and said, " Oh, no, no ! no ! ! " 
clapping my hands together to emphasize what 
I said, and eight pairs of eyes looked up so 
pleased, and eight hands came down hard, and 
they said, " Oh, no, no ! no ! ! " If I had to 
stay here forever, saying, "book, one book, 
two books, one finger, two fingers," and other 
like startling things, I think I should go insane. 
I always love Harry better after a hard day 
of this. I'm terribly lonesome to-night. I 



192 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

think Harry must be giving me absent treat- 
ment. 

At present we teachers and our Porto Rican 
followers in Masalla are making preparations 
for a fitting reception to our bachelor mission- 
ary who sails from New York next Saturday, 
and nothing is too good to suit the occasion, 
for, on top of the fact that we all love him, is 
the news that Mrs. Bachelor is with him. 

Harry writes that he had a letter this week 
saying that there is a package waiting for him 
at the express office in San Juan. He]is wonder- 
ing what it is, but I have an idea that I know, 
though I am biding my time to tell it. 

Doquiere, March 1, 1908. 
Our dearest Mother Gertrude : 

Home again after a month in Masalla. 
My eight twisting cherubs, though they promise 
well, are not yet what one could call eloquent 
in the use of the king's English. 

I had planned to have quite an elaborate 
programme for Easter Sunday this year, but 
being side-tracked in Masalla has left me little 
time for preparation ; but I shall begin at once, 
and I can promise that my children will not fail 
me, for they are always ready for any amount 
of work so long as it concerns ^fiesta, and I 



IN PORTO RICO 193 

have never seen them excelled in native ability 
along these lines. 

Our idea of Easter is quite foreign to the peo- 
ple here. They do not think of it as the day of 
Christ's resurrection primarily, nor do they feel 
any of the freshness and sweetness and newness 
of life that is attached to the day in our 
land. The days of Holy "Week seem to us 
to be anything but holy. If you ask the 
average Porto Rican of the less intelligent 
classes — and they far outnumber the higher 
classes — what Holy Week is, they will tell you 
that it is a week of holidays and processions ; but, 
as to the real religious significance of the sea- 
son, they know little. Though the time honored 
order of celebrating this week still holds, the 
demonstrations as seen now are slight compared 
to what they were in former times, and in many 
towns the majority of the people give little or 
no attention to them, while in others there is 
little else to be seen or heard. Here in 
Doquiere all is comparatively quiet during the 
earlier part of the week. On Thursday, the day 
of the crucifixion of Christ, the bells are tolled. 
Friday, the day of burial of Christ, is the day of 
horrors to us. At three o'clock the burial pro- 
cession leaves the Catholic church. First comes 
a large gilded casket which contains a more 



194 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

than life-sized wax figure of the body of Christ, 
which can be seen through the glass front of 
the casket. This is placed upon a splendid gilt 
bier which is borne on the shoulders of men. 
Then comes a procession of priests and people, 
varying in length according to the interest in 
the event at the time. Then we see a large 
figure dressed in black, carrying in her hand 
a black-bordered handkerchief. It is Mary, 
mourning for the death of her Son. There are 
groups of altar boys bearing candles, groups 
of girls and groups of women who help to 
make up the procession proper, which is led by 
the town band and followed by the street rab- 
ble. They pass through the principal streets of 
town and then return to the church. 

On Saturday, all is quiet. Even the bells are 
not rung. But early on Sunday morning we 
are awakened by the clanging of bells and the 
shouts of the rabble in the streets, for on the 
plaza there is another demonstration in honor 
of the glorious resurrection day. Two proces- 
sions are formed. One is headed by an image 
of Christ, and the other by an image of Mary. 
These two divisions move in opposite directions 
around the city square until they meet, when 
the images are made to bow to each other. 
This is Mary greeting the risen Christ. Then 






IN PORTO RICO 195 

another figure appears. It is an effigy of Ju- 
das, who has betrayed his Master. It is some- 
times carried and sometimes mounted on a 
horse. It is seized by the mob, torn limb from 
limb and carried out of the city, and often the 
luckless horse who carries this effigy is cruelly 
treated, and the scrabble continues until they 
have banished the traitor Judas from their 
midst. Little Texas asked her class of small 
boys what Easter day stands for and one of 
them said, " It's the day they run Judas out of 
town." This sounded strange to us until we 
learned that not only in the minds of the small 
boys, but in the minds of grown-up as well, 
this is the idea that characterizes Easter day. 

Our vacation time is fast approaching and I 
must very soon begin preparations for the trip. 
As our church year closes on April first, we 
plan to leave on the last of the month. Harry 
is busy making up the year's reports, and we 
go the regular weekly rounds as is our custom. 
It is not easy to leave our field even for a few 
months, but we feel that we shall return 
brighter and sweeter and fresher for a new 
term of work. 

There is talk all over the island of the dan- 
ger of an epidemic of bubonic plague which 
they say has been carried from Venezuela. The 




























196 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

health department is seriously concerned about 
it, and they are taking every precaution to ar- 
rest its progress. To this end they ordered 
that all dogs running at large should be slain, 
as it is claimed that they carry infection, and 
poor Doggie fell a victim — a fitting end, I 
think, to his waywardness. Personally, I have 
been unable to feel the blow very deeply, but 
both Harry and the senorita, who so shame- 
lessly tempted him from his home, took it so to 
heart that I erected out in the garden a fitting 
monument to his memory. It is made of wood 
painted white, and upon it are these words, 
which I consider particularly appropriate and 
touching : 

Sacred to the Memory 

of 

Doggie 

who died 

A Martyr to Science 

in the year of our Lord, 1908. 

7 Tis better to have loved and lost 
than never to have loved at all. 

B. I. P. 



When Harry saw it, he forgot his grief 
and laughed aloud, but the senorita loved 
him with an intensity exceeded only by 



IN PORTO RICO 197 

the brother's fondness for our ill-fated pink 
and white tailless horse. She is incon- 
solable. 

Doquiere, April 23, 1908. 
Dear Mother Gertrude : 

I have been busy these past few weeks 
preparing for our trip home. We plan to sail 
next week. How happy we shall be to see 
you ! I almost wish the journey to California 
were ended. However, the distance does not 
seem so long to me now as it did when I first 
looked out upon it. 

Harry is now in San Juan and I am spending 
the time during his absence with the teachers 
in the big stone house. An acquaintance of 
Harry's who is visiting the island wrote that 
he would arrive in San Juan on the steamer 
this week, and we thought it would be a wel- 
come surprise for him to have Harry there to 
meet him and bring him over here. Since he 
left, I received, from the express office in San 
Juan, the most mysterious and interesting look- 
ing large box which had been forwarded from 
there. A card accompanied it which strictly 
stipulated that it was to be opened in the pres- 
ence of the entire mission force of Doquiere, 
and I knew at a glance that the handwriting 






198 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

was that of Mrs. Williams. The girls and I 
are like a lot of children just before Santa 
Claus arrives. We are sure that it must con- 
tain something for each of us and we can 
hardly wait for Harry to return. The box now 
occupies a place of honor in the middle of our 
parlor rug, and there is a hatchet beside it, that 
no time shall be lost when Harry comes to re- 
veal its treasures. 

I have been sitting alone on the big balcony 
again this evening, living over in my thoughts 
the whirl of the past three years, and twilight 
is just setting in. Our life here is now as a 
tale that is told. I think of my girlhood, and 
of the day when Harry said he loved me, 
the day when we were married, the day we 
left home, and of the happy, happy days 
and weeks and months since, and of hap- 
pier, still happier days that yet await me. 
The path across the ocean seems shorter to me 
now than when Harry was with you two years 
ago, for in two weeks more we shall be near- 
ing the door that bears the number 2720, but 
the thought of leaving behind the scenes that 
have claimed our interest for three years and 
the people that we love here is not free from 
a tinge of sadness. I feel to-night a new kind 
of homesickness that I have never felt before. 



IN PORTO RICO 199 

I love everything here but I am so tired. I 
want to go home. 

Doquiere, April %6, 1908. 
My dear Mother Gertrude : 

In my last letter I tried to be calm and 
matter-of-fact, so that I might give you a taste 
of some of the surprises that have filled up the 
past few days. The most exciting adventure I 
ever shared, and the most thrilling event of 
our three years here, culminated on Saturday 
evening. Harry had returned from San Juan 
with his friend at noon, and I had the house as 
spick and span as work, soap and water, 
fresh flowers and two faithful servants, could 
make it, and, by way of overdoing it, I had 
decorated the guest-room in its daintiest 
apparel with a bunch of pink roses on the 
table. The girls laughed at me for spreading 
it on so thick for a friend of Harry's whom I 
had never seen, but I did it anyhow. We all 
agreed to have an early dinner and open the 
box in the evening and when I tell you all that 
happened that evening, you will not wonder 
that, as the little boy said, " I just thought I'd 
bust any minute." 

The girls came over at six o'clock, and after 
they had finished exclaiming about my decora- 



200 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 






tions, we gathered about the box and Harry- 
pried the cover. It was as good as Christmas. 
There was a set of books for Harry, some 
trifles for the servants, and for every one of us 
a new white dress with everything to go with 
it ! That dear woman must have had her Aid 
Society and the Missionary Society and all her 
friends at work for weeks. Our eyes opened 
as big as saucers as, one by one, the fluffy, 
dainty things came to light. There were even 
white shoes and gloves and belts and handker- 
chiefs of the daintiest linen. They were all as 
girlish and as pretty as could be, but the little 
widow's gown, I noticed, was just a little bit 
more elaborate than the rest, with an extra 
touch of embroidery here and an extra frill 
there. A bevy of schoolgirls with a box from 
home could not have been more delighted than 
we were, and Harry insisted that we should go 
then and there and put them on and appear at 
our best to meet his friend, who, not being 
personally interested in the box, had gone out 
for a stroll on the beach. This took some little 
time, and I cannot begin to describe to you the 
scene that was enacted when we returned. 

For the past two hours my heart had been 
thumping like a hammer, and I was then 
worked up to such a pitch that I could hardly 



IN PORTO RICO 201 

contain myself a moment longer. The box 
and all the wrappings and paper and sticks and 
nails had been cleared away, and there stood 
Harry in his best Prince Albert and beside 
him, in full dress, was his friend. The two 
girls who followed me out paused and stood 
modestly by waiting to be presented, leaving 
space in front of them for the owner of the 
blue eyes, who never in her life looked sweeter 
than she did that evening as she stepped into 
the room, where we stood breathlessly await- 
ing her. She glanced first at me, then at 
Harry, and then as the whole unusual situation 
seemed to dawn upon her in a flash, she started 
forward with a smothered cry that carried 
with it all her pent-up longings of three years 
and went straight to our hearts as two strong 
arms caught her up. Harry and I could not 
stand it another minute and we instinctively 
started for the study door, fairly dragging the 
other two girls with us. 

"I've come to help you, my brave, sweet 
girl," the strange voice said, " and you " 

But Harry closed the door and we did not 
hear the rest. 

The excitement had been all too much for 
me and I sank into the morris chair and cried. 
Harry's eyes glistened suspiciously, too, and 



202 AN AMERICAN BRIDE 

the teachers looked frightened and could do 
little more than to gasp, " What ? Who is he ? 
What does it all mean ? " 

Then Harry explained and I helped him out, 
and brushed up my frowzled tresses, and, after 
half an hour or so, we returned to the sola. 
The stranger and his darling teacher, still 
agitated but in perfect self-control and radi- 
antly happy, arose as we entered and stood 
beneath a pretty bell of pink that represented 
all the gardens in town and all the roses we 
could steal, borrow or beg, which had been 
worked together by the town florist. It had 
hung there when the girls had entered before, 
but in their excitement they had not noticed it. 

The whole affair was as clear as could be to 
all now, and Harry stood up before the two, 
and the words "Whom God hath joined," 
though we had so often heard them, took on a 
new meaning to us. 

When all was over and Mr. and Mrs. 

had been presented and kissed by us all, we 
went out to the dining-room where we re- 
freshed ourselves with the modest little re- 
past that, during the busy day, I had been 
able to prepare. We tried for another half 
hour to explain ourselves, then, as it was 
dangerously near Sunday morning, our last 



IN POKTO RICO 203 

Sunday, too, we left the dining-room and on 
entering the sola again Harry handed over the 
key of the house to his friend. " It is yours," 
he said, " until we return." 

We bade them good-night and left the house, 
explaining to the girls that we were to be their 
guests until Monday noon, at which time we 
were to leave. And now that I have told you 
all, and our trunks are strapped and off, and 
the time is about up, I must close. Our next 
letter will, I hope, be mailed in New York. 

New York, Nov. 1, 1908. 
Our own dear Mother Gertrude : 

The summer has seemed long to you I 
know, as it has to us, but now that you are 
coming to see us we feel repaid for the disap- 
pointment we felt when the doctor said I 
needed a year's rest and quiet, and we decided 
we would not return to our tropical home, but 
remain here in New York. The man who took 
our key to keep until our return is true to his 
post and Doquiere, my rag-tag babies and all 
are receiving the best of care. 

" The bridge is burned," he wrote Harry a 
few days ago, " and you may be interested to 
know that I touched the match to it during my 
walk alone on the beach that happiest of happy 



204 



AN AMERICAN BRIDE 






1 









evenings when you opened the box from Mrs. 
Williams. I am thoroughly won over to your 
work. We deeply regret the loss of our two 
teachers, one of them having been called home 
by her mother's illness, and the other sent to a 
new field that claims to need her more than we 
do. Our sincerest love to you and yours," he 
added, " for to your kind interest I owe my 
present happiness as well as the love I have for 
my work in this little adopted country of ours." 

Harry and I often talk of our life there and 
of the two who now fill the places we left. 
Our three years there were happy ones and the 
memory of them will ever be sweet to us. We 
got our share of the hard knocks that go with 
such a work and such a country, but we tried 
to take them bravely and wisely. Though we 
loved our little home in that sunny clime we 
must admit that the United States feels good 
under our feet and English sounds like music to 
us. I have pasted a white paper over the 
recipe for Hamburg loaf in my cook-book and 
we are again able to remember to eat the but- 
ter placed beside our breakfast plates. 

I am happy in the expectation of seeing you 
so soon, for now I know that I have taken root 
in your heart and that you love me. Have you 
forgotten, dear Mother Gertrude, that it took 



IN PORTO RICO 205 

you a long time to be real nice to me after 
Harry told you that we were going to be mar- 
ried ? And have you forgotten the time when 
you told me that you liked me just as well as 
you could like any girl who could have the 
presumption to marry your boy ? and you said, 
too, that you " just didn't care ! " — that some 
day I might have an only son and some one 
might take him from me and then I would 
know how you felt, " so there ! " You forgot 
that way back years ago you married some- 
body's son, and that he was the father of your 
boy, but if you could but see us now, you 
would remember the boy you married and the 
little boy you held in your arms and the big 
boy you lost, and I know, too, that you would 
enter into his happiness and love me for taking 
him away, for you just couldn't help it. And 
you would kiss him and then kiss me, and then 
kiss the wee little boy in my arms, just because 
the boy you gave me is his father. 



FICTION, JUVENILE, Etc. 



CLARA E. LAUGHLIN 

"Everybody 's Lonesome" §?™% Tom . 

Illustrated by A. I. Keller, i2mo, cloth, net 75c. 

Every new story by the author of "Evolution of a Girl's 
Ideal" may be truthfully called her best work. No one who 
feels the charm of her latest, will question the assertion. 
Old and young alike will feel its enchantment and in unfold- 
ing her secret to our heroine the god-mother invariably 
proves a fairy god-mother to those who read. 

ROBERT E. KNOWLES 

The Handicap 

i2mo, cloth, net $1.20. 

A story of a life noble in spite of environment and 
heredity, and a struggle against odds which will appeal to 
all who love the elements of strength in life. The handicap is 
the weight which both the appealing heroine and hero of 
t?iis story bear up under, and, carrying which, they win. 

WINIFRED HESTON, M. D . 

A Bluestocking in India SE^E. 

With Frontispiece, i2mo. cloth, net $1.00. 

A charming little story told in letters written by a 
medical missionary from India, abounding in feminine del- 
icacy of touch and keenness of insight, and a very unusual 
and refreshing sense of humor. 



WILFRED T. GRENFELL 

Down to the Sea 

Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net $i.oe. 

A new volume of Dr. Grenfell's adventures in Labrador. 
Stories of travels with dogs over frozen country, when the 
wind and the ice conspired against the heroic missionary and 
stories of struggle against the prejudice and ignorance of the 
folk for whom he has given his life. 

J. J. BELL 

Wullie McWattie's Master 

Uniform, with "Oh! Christina!" Illustrated, net 60c, 

"Those of you who have been delighted with "Wee Mac- 

gregor" and have chortled with glee over the delights of 

Christina will learn with pleasure that J. J. Bell has written 

another such delightful sketch." — Chicago Evening Journal. 



FICTION, JUVENILE, Etc. 



MELVILLE C HATER 

The Eternal Rose 

A Story Without a Beginning or an End. 
i2mo, Cloth, net $1.00. 
A story which traces the effect upon the hero and charm- 
ing heroine and the other life-like characters which pass 
through these pages of a mysterious old box or chest — known 
to legend as the Eternal Rose. A work that is unique in 
conception, charming in style and unfailing in interest from 
beginning to end. 

NORMAN DUNCAN 

Billy Topsail and Company 

Uniform with "The Adventures of Billy Topsail," Illus- 
trated 1 2 mo, cloth, $1.50. 

Another rousing volume of "The Billy Topsail Books," 
which is brimful of the same fun and courage and thrilling 
experiences as its predecessor. It is a series of boyish ad- 
ventures on the Coast of Newfoundland with the flavor of 
the sea and all the snap that delights the juvenile mind. 

W. D. MURRAY 

Bible Stories to Tell Children 

Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. 

Bible stories made actually real for children. The at- 
tempt has been successfully made to represent to the chil- 
dren what the heroes of these familiar stories must have 
felt and said. They are treated familiarly yet in a tone in 
no way lacking in reverence and will do much to make the 
characters they portray alive to the child. 

TRAVEL— SOCIOLOGY 

EDGAR ALLEN FORBES 

The Land of the White Helmet 

Lights and Shadows Across Africa. 
Illustrated, 8vo, Cloth, net $1.50. 

Impressions of Africa vivid, and the emphasis usually 
falls upon those sights which most travelers consider either 
out of their sphere to notice or not of sufficient scientific 
interest to record, but which at the same time may be safely 
said to have interested them as much as anything else. 

EDWARD A. STEINER 

Against the Current S™ SSSSSi-* 

121110, cloth, net $1.25. 

Dr. Steiner has portrayed some of the pictures which 
stand out most vividly from *he background of his early 
boyhood and which influenced him in his subsequent de- 
velopment. His meeting with the returned soldier who saw 
Lincoln in far off America — his meeting with Tolstoi, etc.,— 
are vividly portrayed and their consequences noted. 



THE BRIGHT SIDE OF MISSIONARY LIFE 



HELEN E. SPRINGER 

Snap Shots from Sunny Africa 

Introduction by Bishop Hartzler. Illustrated, iamo, Cloth, 
net $1.00. 

A singularly interesting collection of incidents of mis- 
sion life among the African natives, such as "Attending a 
Native Dance," 'An African Vanity Fair," "The Glorious 
Fourth in Africa," "Watapo's Wedding," "Bicycling in Cen- 
tral Africa," and many other subjects of equal fascination. 

ANNIE L A. BAIRD 

Daybreak in Korea A Tal f n ° t f h J r F a a n ;£i? ation 

Illustrated, i6mo, cloth, net 6oc. 

"A keen, incisive story, which depicts the life of the 
Korean woman in a most revealing way. It is just the book 
for those who would quickly penetrate beyond outward ap- 
pearances and see what moves the Korean mind. t It is full 
of snap and vim with a true insight into reality." — Wm. 
Elliot Griffis. 

MARY CULLER WHITE 

The Days of June 

The I^ife Story of June Nicholson. i6mo, Cloth, net 50c. 

In this little transcript from actual life may be seen 
clearly the "stuff of which missionaries are made." W. R. 
Lambreth, General Secretary of the Board of Missions M. E). 
Church, South, says: "Such books help us to realize the 

potentiality of a life given to a life mission The spright- 

liness of the author's style, the pathos, the insight and the 
deep currents of thought are almost inimitable." 

ISABELLA RIGGS WILLIAMS 

By the Great Wall 

Selected Correspondence of Isabella Riggs Williams, Mis- 
sionary of the American Board to China, 1866-1897. 
With an introduction by Arthur H. Smith. Illustrated, 

lamo, cloth, net $1.50. < 

"This volume is a little window opened into the life and 
work of an exceptionally equipped missionary. Mrs. Wil- 
liams won the hearts of Chinese women and girls; showed 
what a Christian home may be, and how the children of 
such a home can be trained for wide and unselfish useful- 
ness wherever their lot is cast." — Arthur H. Smith, Author 
of Chinese Characteristics, Etc. 






IN OTHER LANDS 



ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND 

Court Life in China : The c %f d a] pl%? mcials 

Illustrated, 121110, Cloth, net $1.50. 

Prof. Headland's vivid sketches of Chinese social life 
have awakened unusual interest as they have appeared in 
The Century, Everybody's, The Cosmopolitan, The Outlook 
and other magazines. From most intimate association he has 
prepared this fascinating account of facts little known out- 
side of Chinese Court Circles. Much has been said of the 
Empress Dowager, but no one has previously succeeded in 
giving such an intimate picture of this renowned ruler. 
Mrs. Headland has been of material assistance in her hus- 
band's preparation of this work. In her professional ca- 
pacity she has been admitted to the inmost circles of the 
court, having had many audiences with the Empress Dowager, 
herself. 

GERALD1 NE GUINNESS 

Peru : Its Story, People and Religion 

Illustrated, 8vo, Cloth, net $2.50. 

"The author possesses a keen power of observation, a 
good deal of enthusiasm, and the faculty for writing a stir- 
ring account of an interesting people. Tlie facts are well 
grouped and the Peruvian people are made to glow with life. 
The book presents a vivid picture of life in the larger cities 
of modern Peru." — Review of Reviews, 

MANUEL AND U JAR 

Spain of To-day from Within 

With Autobiography of Author. Illustrated, net $1.25. 

"A work considerably different in tone and treatment 
from the usual book of travel. The author knows his coun- 
try intimately. His narrative is candid and interesting, an 
authentic and entertaining comment on modern Spain and 
its matters of interest to the general reader — an honest in- 
side view of a land that is particularly hard to get acquainted 
with." — Cleveland Plain*Dealer. 

SUSAN BALLARD 

Fairy Tales from Far Japan 

New Edition, Fully Illustrated, net $1.00. 

Mrs. Isabella I*, Bird Bishop says: "Miss Ballard ha9 
done English readers a great service in placing within their 
reach these most popular specimens of Japanese fairy lore, 
showing the sort of pabulum on which Japanese children are 
reared. I have much pleasure in commending these charming 
tales to all who desire a glimpse of Japanese fairy lore." 



